Chinese dissident rides jet ski 200 miles to smuggle himself into South Korea

A jet skier who washed up on the shores of South Korea last week is believed to be a Chinese dissident.

The South Korean coast guard said earlier this week that a Chinese man in his 30s tried to enter the country last Wednesday after riding the watercraft 200 miles across the Yellow Sea from Shandong area of China.

The man said he left China with a life vest, helmet, binoculars, a compass and five canisters of fuel weighing about 28 gallons.

“He refilled the petrol on the ride and dumped the empty barrels into the sea,” the coast guard said in a news release.

The man was detained after his jet ski got stuck in the muddy shore of the South Korean port city Incheon and he called for rescue.

Lee Dae-seon, a South Korean pro-democracy activist, identified the man as Chinese human rights activist Kwon Pyong.

“While his means of entry into South Korea in violation of the law was wrong, surveillance of the Chinese authorities and political persecution of Kwon since 2016 are behind his life-risking crossing into South Korea,” Lee told Agence France-Presse.

China frequently uses exit bans to prevent activists from leaving its territories, according to BBC News.

Kwon has previously been jailed for criticizing Chinese President Xi Jinping and participated in pro-democracy demonstrations in Hong Kong.

While its unknown how long Kwon will be in South Korean custody after being arrested for entering the country illegally, he doesn’t plan to stay.

“He wants to go to a third country,” Lee told CNN on Wednesday. “He went to Iowa State University so he speaks English. He wants to go to an English-speaking country.”

Kwon’s daring escape comes nearly three weeks after jailed Russian dissident Alexei Navalny was sentenced to 19 more years behind bars.