纽约时报中文网 - 英文原版-英South Korea Sentences Dissident Who Fled China on a Jet Ski
November 24, 2023 2 min 397 words
这则报道揭示了韩国对逃离中国的异见者以及其非同寻常的逃生手段的审判。通过这起案件，我们看到了现代中国体制下异议人士所面临的极大压力，以至于一些人不惜冒险通过不寻常的途径逃离。韩国对这位以"摩托艇逃亡者"之名为人熟知的异见者的判决，既是对他个人命运的决定，也反映了国际社会在处理中国异议问题上的立场。这不仅是一桩个案，更是对言论自由和人权的深刻思考。这一事件引发对中国异议现状的广泛关注，同时也促使国际社会重新审视自身在捍卫普世价值观上的责任。
After being held for months on an immigration violation, a Chinese dissident who traveled from China to South Korea on a Jet Ski-type vehicle in August was given a suspended sentence on Thursday. His prospects remain unclear.
The district court in Incheon, South Korea, handed the activist, Kwon Pyong, 35, a suspended jail term of one year with a two-year probation period, effectively ending his custody. For the past three months, Mr. Kwon has been in detention in Incheon.
After Mr. Kwon made the dangerous trip, crossing around 200 miles of ocean by personal watercraft, he was found stranded on a mud flat off South Korea’s west coast, near Incheon. He had hoped to seek asylum, but instead was arrested for illegal entry. The South Korea Coast Guard found him with a life jacket, a telescope, a compass and a helmet, according to the local police.
Mr. Kwon was charged with violating the Immigration Control Act. His legal team had initially hoped for a fine with no detention, but several months in custody and a disappointing preliminary hearing in October had lowered their expectations.
Deportation would be the worst-case scenario for Mr. Kwon, but Thursday’s ruling makes that look less likely.
“He’s had dreams of being sent back,” said Lee Dae-seon, an activist who has known Mr. Kwon for years and last visited Mr. Kwon at the detention center on Monday.
Mr. Kwon, who had been a vocal critic of China for years, disappeared into Chinese police custody in 2016 after posting a photo of himself in a T-shirt likening Xi Jinping to Hitler. Sentenced to 18 months in prison for inciting subversion, he was released in March 2018. Since 2019, he has told Mr. Lee he was interested in seeking asylum in South Korea. The two men were acquainted through other human rights activists.
“We can’t imagine how bad it could be,” Mr. Kwon’s father, Quan He, said Thursday of the prospect of Mr. Kwon being sent back to China. “Under Chinese law, it’s a sin to come out against your country,” said Mr. Quan, who came to South Korea shortly after learning about his son’s arrest.
The court has been examining Mr. Kwon’s claims for asylum, for which his previous anti-China posts on social media potentially offer support, said Ethan Hee-seok Shin, a legal analyst in Seoul. The court has yet to release its decision.