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SEOUL — A Chinese language man who washed up on South Korea’s west coast final week after crossing the Yellow Sea on a water scooter, is regarded as a political dissident who was as soon as imprisoned in China, a South Korean human rights activist stated Wednesday.
Kwon Pyong, a 35-year-old ethnic Korean whose identify in Mandarin is Quan Ping, arrived within the port metropolis of Incheon final week, Lee Daeseon, a Korea-based human rights activist, stated in a phone interview. Incheon, an hour’s drive west of the capital Seoul, is the house of the nation’s principal airport.
Lee stated Kwon had traveled greater than 300 kilometers, or about 200 miles, on the non-public watercraft from China’s Shandong province to succeed in South Korea, the place a few of his kinfolk reside. Lee, who has recognized Kwon since 2019, stated he confirmed the person’s id after being allowed a go to Tuesday to a coast guard facility the place Kwon was being held. A detailed relative in South Korea additionally confirmed that the person is Kwon, in response to Lee, who stated he had spoken to that relative.
Kwon is looking for political asylum exterior China, ideally in the USA, Britain or Canada, Lee stated. “Kwon is in good well being and good spirits,” he stated. Kwon beforehand studied as a school scholar in Iowa, Lee stated.
The Korean coast guard stated in a information launch Sunday that a person on a 1,800-cc crimson water scooter — carrying greater than 200 liters, or greater than 50 gallons, of gasoline — had beached on Incheon’s wetlands and was detained for crossing the border illegally. It stated the particular person had visited Korea beforehand however didn’t disclose the person’s identify and refused to remark additional, citing privateness issues.
The coast guard’s particulars of how the person was discovered instructed he had ready for the journey completely: He was sporting a life jacket and a helmet and carrying binoculars and a compass. He had dumped empty gasoline canisters into the ocean after refueling alongside the way in which.
In 2017, Kwon was jailed for 18 months in China for “inciting subversion of state energy” after he posted speeches, photos and movies on social media crucial of the Chinese language authorities. In a single picture, Kwon wore a white T-shirt that likened China’s high chief, Xi Jinping, to Hitler. A Chinese language courtroom stated Kwon had insulted the “state authority and the socialist system,” in response to Entrance Line Defenders, an advocacy group that has adopted his case.
This dissident makes use of Chinese language-owned TikTok to criticize China’s authorities
Since being launched from jail, Kwon has been topic to an exit ban stopping him from departing China legally, Lee stated. He tried to go away China and enter Korea by submitting a political asylum utility in 2019, however the course of was ultimately canceled due to the journey ban. Beneath Xi, China is more and more utilizing exit bans to maintain critics of the regime — residents and foreigners alike — within the nation, the place they are often extra simply surveilled and silenced.
The Chinese language Embassy in Seoul refused to remark, saying it has no related details about the case.
After getting back from Iowa, Kwon labored for a household enterprise in his hometown of Yanbian, a commerce hub on the China-North Korea border. On social media platforms that are actually banned in China, he posted criticism of the federal government’s censorship and political controls and help for dissidents and protests, his former attorneys stated on-line and to the media in 2019. All of his Fb and Twitter posts have since been deleted.