A Chinese political dissident who made a daring escape to South Korea last month in a small boat has now arrived in Canada, according to his friend on social media Saturday.
Dong Guangping was on a 10.8-foot inflatable boat off the coast of a western South Korean island in May when he was stopped by the coast guard for allegedly breaking immigration laws. This marked his fourth attempt to leave China.
Dong, once a police officer in China, had faced multiple arrests due to his activism. He spent three years in prison starting in 2001 for “inciting subversion of state power” and was incarcerated for over eight months after being detained in 2014 while attending a memorial for victims of the Tiananmen Square crackdown, as reported by Amnesty International.
He had previously escaped to Thailand and Vietnam but was sent back to China each time. Dong also attempted an unsuccessful swim to reach a Taiwanese island.
The rubber boat that a Chinese national was in when he was detained in the waters off South Korea’s west coast, at a port in Taean, South Korea. / Credit: The Taean Maritime Police via AP
At a court hearing following his arrest, he expressed hopes of going to Canada to reunite with his wife and daughters, who have already settled there, according to reports from South Korean media.
In a post on Saturday on X, his friend Sheng Xue, an activist from Canada with Chinese roots, mentioned that Dong had touched down in Toronto after an Air Canada flight on Friday.
“He just had a big bowl of noodles with eggs, tomatoes and shrimps,” she shared in her post, noting that she has spent over ten years working towards getting him out of China.
She included photos of Dong sitting in a car with her and another image of him holding his meal.
Xue added on Saturday with another post, “In the process of fleeing for his life more than ten times over a decade, risking his life and facing constant failures, he has never uttered a single word of complaint or discouragement.”
She remarked, “Souls that love freedom are full of strength.”
Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada has not immediately commented.
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