Last we heard, it was up in the air whether Kwon Pyong, who in August 2023 had fled the Shandong province of China on a jet ski and made it to South Korea, would be remaining in South Korea or going elsewhere. He reportedly hoped to find asylum in a country like the United States, the United Kingdom, or Canada.
Kwon lugged barrels of fuel along as he made the 186-mile trip, dumping the barrels as he used up the fuel. VOA News reports that his identity was confirmed by a fellow human rights activist, the South Korean Lee Dae-seon, who has known Kwon for several years and was able to see him while he was being held by the South Korean coast guard (“Suspected Chinese Dissident Could Pose Dilemma for South Korea,” September 1, 2023):
Lee posted on Facebook on Aug. 21 saying he received a message from Kwon on Aug. 14 revealing his plans to go to South Korea. . . .
Kwon graduated from Iowa State University in the U.S. in 2012. When Kwon returned to China after his studies, he began lodging complaints against the Chinese government’s political surveillance system, Lee said on Facebook.
According to Frontline Defenders, a human rights organization in Dublin, Kwon was imprisoned in China for 18 months for inciting subversion of state power with his activism work including posting on his social media speeches, images and video insulting state authority and the socialist system. He was released in 2018, according to the group. . . .
The New York Times reports that one of the subversion-inciting things Kwon did was post a photo of himself on Twitter in a T-shirt calling Xi Jinping, China’s top oppressor, “Xitler.”
Kwon’s Twitter profile stated that he was “dedicated to overturning communism.”
After letting him out of prison, China prohibited Kwon from leaving the country. It seems that he is not the obedient type.
