Man flees China by riding jet ski hundreds of miles to South Korea

MicroWave@lemmy.world to News@lemmy.world – 347 points – Man flees China by riding jet ski hundreds of miles across the sea
nbcnews.com

A jet ski rider who has been detained since he washed up on South Korea’s coast is believed to be a Chinese dissident who feared for his safety and fled by crossing hundreds of miles of sea, trailing barrels of fuel behind him.

The coast guard in the western South Korean port city of Incheon said in a statement Sunday that a Chinese man in his 30s tried to illegally enter the country Aug. 16 by riding a jet ski from the Shandong area of China, an eastern province around 200 miles away across the Yellow Sea.

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People like him are welcome in the non-authoritarian part of thè world. Just sad that he had to leave family and friends behind.

Also, very cool stunt!

And he will be tracked wherever he goes by "china police" in foreign countries, like there's in Canada, who will threaten to kill his family in China.

any country a citizen needs to run from in fear for their life is objectively an utter shithole

Like the US?

Are there many people from the US seeking asylum in other countries or migrating at high numbers?

Snowden

Less in fear for his life, and more in fear of jail time. Which he shouldn't have had to fear, don't get me wrong. But there's still a big difference in scale between fleeing jail and fleeing death.

For violating the espionage act? The Rosenbergs were executed for that. US psyops truly out in force.

I might be off base, but your comment has the feel of a "gotcha!" but, yeah, America certainly qualifies.

I mean yeah America might be a shit hole but at least you can always get your passport go to the airport and leave

at least you can always get your passport go to the airport and leave

"The US State Department estimates that 37 per cent of the population has a valid passport" according to the Telegraph. There's also the question as to how many people can afford a flight anywhere. A theoretical freedom to have the ability to do something is great, but many Americans lack the ability to exercise those rights.

This is not a what-aboutism but rather a more fundamental conceptual separation between the negative liberty and positive liberty. The US and other Western countries like the UK are better at one than the other to varying degrees.

"The US State Department estimates that 37 per cent of the population has a valid passport"

How is it the govt's fault that so many Americans are self absorbed to the point they have no interest in ever leaving their home country?

Did you not read the comment you replied to?

Dude didn't mention much of anything about if people are interested in leaving. They mostly said we're too damn broke to afford a plane ticket even if we wanted one.

There's 2 parts to that comment. Percentage of population with a passport, and number of people who can't afford it. I wasn't debating the 2nd one, though I probably have quite a few things I could say on that point.

The first point however, relates to the practically-a-meme about how many Americans have no interest in ever leaving the states even for a brief holiday, whether or not they can afford it.

There's no point in getting a passport when you know you're too broke to afford a plane ticket my dude. The two issues are heavily correlated.

I’m genuinely curious about the part of how many can afford flights. If anybody out there have any stats on that I would greatly appreciate it.

For a start:

One in 10 American households struggled to feed their families last year, with more than 5 million families missing meals and cutting portions due to poverty https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/sep/07/us-food-insecure-families-poverty-study

My assumption would be that if you barely afford food, a flight would be out the window too.

As ever Wikipedia is a good resources to further information: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poverty_in_the_United_States

This bit in particular sticks out:

Among married couple families: 5.8% lived in poverty.[89] This number varied by race and ethnicity as follows:

  • 5.4% of all white persons (which includes white Hispanics),[90]
  • 10.7% of all black persons (which includes black Hispanics),[91]
  • 14.9% of all Hispanic persons (of any race)[92] living in poverty.

Among single parent (male or female) families: 26.6% lived in poverty.[89] This number varied by race and ethnicity as follows:

  • 22.5% of all white persons (which includes white Hispanics),[90]
  • 44.0% of all black persons (which includes black Hispanics),[91]
  • 33.4% of all Hispanic persons (of any race)[93] living in poverty.

Among individuals living alone: 19.1% lived in poverty.[89] This number varied by race and ethnicity as follows:

  • 18% of white persons (which includes white Hispanics),[94]
  • 28.9% of black persons (which includes black Hispanics)[93]
  • 27% of Hispanic persons (of any race)[95] are living in poverty

Lee said Kwon attended Iowa State University and has a degree in aerodynamics.

He puts his knowledge to good use.

Nobody noticed the dude zip tying 300 miles worth of fuel to his jet ski?

It's not that much fuel. From what I can tell, jet skis usually get about 20 miles per gallon, so he would need 15 gallons of fuel, minimum

Like that last scene in resident evil 4, he might be carrying the President's daughter too.

He can afford jet ski, but not a plane ticket?

I'm sure you read the article but missed this part:

“[They] told me that they found out from the Chinese authorities that Kwon was banned from leaving China,” Lee said. “[He] had no choice but to flee China for his safety.”

China has increasingly used exit bans to bar people — including domestic critics and foreign executives — from leaving the country.

The USA state department has a "reconsider travel" warning for China, and they specifically cite exit bans as one of the reasons. Especially for Americans with Chinese dual citizenship, as China doesn't recognize dual citizenship.

Skimmed the article, missed that part.