Kwon Pyong

Kwon Pyong (; born 1988), also known as Quan Ping or Johnny Kwon, is a Chinese dissident and human rights activist. He was charged in 2017 with inciting subversion against the Chinese state and was sentenced to 18 months in prison. In 2023, he fled to South Korea via jet ski and was detained on immigration charges. He was given a suspended prison sentence and was deported to the United States in 2024, where he planned to seek asylum.

Background Kwon was born in 1988 to an ethnically Korean family in Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture, China. He attended Iowa State University in the United States, studying aerospace engineering, and graduated in either 2012 At some point, he also attended the University of Queensland in Australia. During his student years, Kwon took on the name of Johnny, and worked for the family trade business. He regularly visited South Korea. Kwon planned to wear the shirt in public on 1 October, National Day,

Kwon was charged with inciting subversion, with 15 or more than 70 of his social media posts being identified as subversive. It was unclear whether this included the picture of the shirt. and were fired by Kwon's parents shortly before it began. and sentenced to 18 months in prison. He reported constant surveillance, which he attributed to his communication with Tiananmen protests organizer Wang Dan. Inspired by The Shawshank Redemption and a woman who circumnavigated Australia on a jet ski, he decided to flee to South Korea by sea. navigating with a compass and smartphone. He fell into the water twice in the course of his journey, His trip spanned 14

Arrest and imprisonment in South Korea The Korea Coast Guard rescued Kwon from the mud flat and detained him on immigration charges. According to Kwon, investigators denied him counsel and threatened to torture him. The coast guard issued a statement denying that any human rights violations had occurred. Kwon was ordered to be deported, but his legal case stayed proceedings.

Prosecutors requested two and a half years in prison for the immigration violations, to which Kwon pled guilty.