Prominent Chinese cartoonist Wang Liming hopes to start a new life in Japan, saying he is afraid his safety will be threatened if he returns to his home country amid intensifying restrictions there on freedom of expression.
Wang, known as "Rebel Pepper," has grown to prominence via social media networks since uploading sarcastic and critical works about Chinese politics in 2009. The 41-year-old has about 1 million followers on the Chinese micro-blogging site Weibo.
During a trip to Japan that began in May, his first time traveling outside China, Wang released caricatures expressing the courtesy of Japanese and other things that he felt about the country.