A Xi Jinping critic flees to South Korea on a jet ski

A Chinese dissident was arrested Wednesday night 23, while trying to reach South Korea, while piloting a plane Waterslide. Chinese activist groups confirmed his identity.

His name is Kwon Byung, 35 years old. Near the Korean city of Incheon, he was trapped with him Waterslide In the midst of a swamp where he was stopped by the country’s coast guard.

Mission: Impossible

According to the authorities, the Chinese traveled about 300 km, leaving Xantome County. The Korean military, which spotted a strange craft, alerted the coast guard, which also received calls from emergency services, raised by Pyeong himself.

To accomplish this feat, the activist took several barrels of fuel with him, which he threw into the sea after it was empty. At first, the coast guard could not identify him, but a member of the NGO Dialogo Chino confirmed to AFP that he was Kwon Byeong.

Convicted of “insulting” the dictator and the regime

The activist had already been arrested in October 2016 on charges of “sabotage” by “insulting state authority and the socialist system.” The prosecution reported Social media posts and the clothes the dissident was wearing, with criticism of Xi Jinping, President of China and General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party.

Kwon was sentenced to a year and a half in prison, and was released from prison in March 2018, according to human rights NGO Front Line Defenders. Banned from leaving the country, he would have been under state surveillance and political persecution by the Chinese authorities for years.

History of protests against abuse of power

Kwon Byung has campaigned against the Chinese system’s human rights abuses and in support of lawyers who have faced harassment and imprisonment. publicly criticized Tiananmen Square massacre and traveled to Hong Kong 2014 to participate in the Occupy Central movement protests.

The activist, who lives in self-imposed exile, “is now deciding between asylum in South Korea or choosing a third country.” The statement was issued by Lee Dae-seon, representative of Diálogo Chino, who confirmed Kwon’s identity to the press.

With information from the newspaper Watchman.