HONG KONG—Two Hong Kongers pleaded guilty Thursday to “conspiring to collude with foreign forces” as well as Next Digital founder Jimmy Lai to “endanger national security,” local media reported. In a separate case, local media reported seven pro-democracy activists pleaded guilty to organizing and inciting others to take part in an unauthorized assembly held in 2019. The cases are part of a broad suppression of dissent following anti-government protests that roiled Hong Kong in 2019. The protests were sparked by concerns that Beijing was infringing on the freedoms promised to the former British colony when it was handed to Chinese control in 1997. In the first case, activist Andy Li and legal assistant Chan Tsz-wah pleaded guilty to a conspiracy where they sought to attract international sanctions against Beijing and the Hong Kong government, according to the South China Morning Post newspaper. Lawyers for the defendants in both cases could …