Kwon Pyong, a prominent human rights activist who has been critical of Xi Jinping, managed to escape China through unconventional means. According to fellow activists, he embarked on an extraordinary journey, riding a jet ski for nearly 200 miles across the Yellow Sea from Shandong province to the South Korean port of Incheon, as reported by CBS. However, he was ultimately arrested by Korean authorities near Incheon’s cruise terminal after getting stuck in mud flats and calling for help.
South Korea’s coast guard revealed that Kwon used a compass and binoculars to navigate the 1800-cc jet ski during his 186-mile voyage. He also secured five barrels of fuel to the jet ski for the journey. Lee Dae-son, an activist with the Dialogue China group based in South Korea, stated in an interview with AFP that Kwon was desperate to leave China. Lee acknowledges that Kwon’s means of entering South Korea broke the law, but attributes his risky crossing to the continuous surveillance and political persecution he faced from Chinese authorities since 2016.
Rights groups assert that Kwon spoke out against human rights abuses in China, criticized the regime online, and participated in pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong in 2014. He was arrested in 2016 for “subverting state power” and was imprisoned for 18 months, as reported by The Guardian. According to Lee, Kwon does not intend to stay in South Korea, as the country grants asylum to only a select few each year. Instead, he hopes to seek refuge in an English-speaking country, considering his proficiency in English from his time at Iowa State University, as mentioned in an interview with CNN.
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