Tag: Kwon Pyong

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…

Kwon Pyong, a Chinese critic of his country’s ruling Communist Party, already had a reputation for boldness. Seven years ago he posted a photo of himself on Twitter in a T-shirt that referred to Xi Jinping, China’s authoritarian leader, as “Xitler.” This, and a spate of similarly provocative antigovernment comments from Mr. Kwon, who lived in the northeastern Chinese city of Yanbian, led to a charge of inciting subversion and a stint in prison. Last week, Mr. Kwon, 35, made another bold move, according to one South Korean human rights…