Two Chinese activists face trial over civil society summit
Al JazeeraDec 01, 2022
The Facts
Kwon Pyong, a Chinese rights activist and prominent critic of President Xi Jinping, has allegedly fled his homeland to South Korea — crossing the choppy waters of the Yellow Sea on a jet ski from Shandong province.
This comes as the Incheon station of the South Korea Coast Guard reported Sunday that a man was detained last Wednesday.
The Spin
Anti-China narrative
It's no coincidence that the number of Chinese asylum-seekers has soared since Xi took office in 2012, even if that means undertaking a perilous journey. Beijing has tightened its control across the PRC regarding civil liberties, suppressing ethnic minorities, and not tolerating even the slightest opposition. Kwon Pyong is just the latest example of this appalling trend.
Pro-China narrative
It's very typical for the West and its allies to distort the truth to smear China, consistently identifying criminals fleeing the country as mere political dissidents. Take the case of Kwon Pyong — the so-called activist who ended up in jail for violating Chinese law has once again revealed his criminal nature by unlawfully entering South Korea.
