2023-08-22 19:38:51
What a spectacular escape!
Activist Kwon Pyong jumped on his jet ski in the Chinese province of Shandong and fled more than 300 kilometers across the Yellow Sea to South Korea. Kwon, who spent a year and a half in China jail for comparing dictator Xi Jinping (70) to Adolf Hitler, was arrested on arrival in South Korea. The activist wants to apply for asylum there.
For his life-threatening crossing, Kwon Pyong only had a life jacket, helmet, compass, binoculars and five petrol drums with him. In the Yellow Sea, he repeatedly refueled his jet ski and threw the empty barrels into the water, the coast guard said.
How long Kwon was away is unclear.
One thing is certain: The activist got stuck with his jet ski in the Wadden Sea in front of the port city of Incheon and had to call for help. The coast guard immediately arrested the Korean-born Chinese. However, there is no suspicion that Kwon Pyong might be a spy.
On his T-shirt, Kwon Pyong compared China dictator Xi Jinping to Adolf Hitler
Photo: Private
Rather, in the spring of 2017, the activist was sentenced by a Chinese court to one and a half years in prison for “insulting the authority of the state and the socialist system”. A few months earlier, Kwon had worn a T-shirt with the inscription “Xitler” in public, comparing Xi Jinping to Adolf Hitler. A punishable insult for the communist regime.
Human rights activists suspect that Kwon Pyong spent the time between his arrest in September 2016 and the verdict in a secret torture prison. The Chinese government keeps its critics disappearing to unknown locations for months, where they are mistreated by the police.
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In March 2019, Kwon had served his sentence. Even following their release, dissidents usually live under constant surveillance by the Beijing regime.
The likelihood that the activist will be allowed to stay in South Korea is slim. The country only offers political asylum to a handful of people a year. Only refugees from North Korea are allowed to stay without any problems because South Korea considers them citizens. The Chinese Embassy in Seoul declined to comment on the incident.
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