Chinese dissident fled to South Korea from Shandong on a motorboat
23.08.2023
According to media reports, Chinese dissident Quan Ping smuggled from Shandong to Incheon, South Korea after spending 14 hours on a jet ski carrying fuel, seeking asylum. Kwon Pyong was arrested after posting a selfie in a T-shirt mocking Chinese President Xi Jinping.
(Voice of Deutsche Welle Chinese Network) According to a report by Yonhap News Agency on August 20, the Incheon Marine Police Department in South Korea stated that it arrested a Chinese man who tried to smuggle into South Korea on a jet ski on August 20. The man is suspected of smuggling into South Korea from the coast of Incheon on the afternoon of the 16th on a jet ski. The police found that he was carrying a life jacket, binoculars, compass, helmet and other items, and set off from Shandong Province on a jet ski with a displacement of 1,800cc. He filled up the motorboat with oil, and tied five 25-liter gasoline barrels to the motorboat with ropes. He continued to refuel on the way, and traveled a total of about 300 kilometers to the coast of Incheon.
The South Korean Coast Guard said the man was in his 30s, Reuters reported. Lee Dae-seon, a South Korean activist, said the Chinese man was named Kwon Pyong.Lee Dae claims that Kwon Ping was wearing a suit in 2016Sarcastic Chinese President Xi JinpingT-shirt selfie and posted on social media, while imprisoned in China. Lee Dae-sun said that he visited Kwon Pyong in the detention center on Tuesday, and “it seems that he decided to flee because he felt political pressure”.
Lee Dae-sun told Reuters that he is the director of “Dialogue China” in Seoul and an activist dedicated to international solidarity. Kwon Pyong is currently considering seeking asylum in a third country, he said.
Lee Daesun said that Kwon Pyong appears to be in good health. South Korean media said Kwon Pyong’s journey took 14 hours.
Kwon Pyong called for help when his motorboat became stranded in mudflats near the cruise terminal in the western port city of Incheon, AFP reported.
Li Daxuan told AFP that although the 35-year-old Kwon Pyong entered South Korea illegally, the monitoring and political persecution by relevant Chinese authorities since 2016 are the reasons why Kwon Pyong risked his life to enter South Korea.
Lee Dae-sun told AFP that Kwon Pyong is considering applying in South Korea.refugeOr choose a third country. According to reports, South Korea only approves a handful of asylum applications each year.
Kwon Pyong has been charged with “inciting subversion”
In 2017, the New York Times reported that Kwon Pyong was charged with “inciting subversion of state power”. In September 2016, shortly after Kwon Pyung shared a photo of him wearing the T-shirt on Twitter (t-shirtPrinted on include “Xitler”[习特勒]vulgar name about Xi Jinping), and was arrested. Liang Xiaojun, one of his lawyers, said the indictment against Kwon Pyong said the charges targeted more than 70 comments, pictures and videos he shared on Twitter and his Facebook page. Still, Kwon’s attorneys said they did not know which comments were subversive or whether the T-shirt photo was among them, because officials denied their requests to see Kwon and to see case files. They also dispute the notion that such criticism amounts to subversion. Liang Xiaojun and another lawyer hired by Kwon Pyong were suddenly fired. Liang Xiaojun said Kwon Ping studied aerospace engineering at Iowa State University, but after finishing his studies in 2014, he worked for a trading business run by his family. Yanbian, the city where Kwon Pyong lives, is the center of trade between China and North Korea. According to the Voice of America report, in 2017, Kwon Ping was sentenced to one and a half years in prison for “inciting subversion of state power” and was restricted from leaving the country after he was released from prison.
According to Yonhap News Agency, the South Korean Coast Guard said that the arrested Chinese man stated during police investigation that he had stayed in South Korea and visited Incheon several times.
(Reuters, AFP, Yonhap, New York Times)
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2023-08-23 12:47:49
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