Dong Guangping, a Chinese dissident who fled to South Korea in a 3.3-meter inflatable boat and was detained by the coast guard in May, has arrived in Canada, according to a friend’s post on X. He told reporters he hopes to reunite with his wife and daughter, w
TORONTO — Dong Guangping made the crossing in a 3.3-meter inflatable boat and survived another detainment at sea. Now, after weeks of uncertainty that began in the waters off a western South Korean island in May, he has landed in Canada.
His friend, Sheng Xue, a Chinese Canadian activist, wrote on X that Dong arrived in Toronto following an Air Canada flight on Friday. In the post, she said he “just had a big bowl of noodles with eggs, tomatoes and shrimps,” and she shared photos of Dong in a car with her and of him holding a bowl.
Dong had been detained by South Korea’s coast guard after he was found in the waters off the island, where he was allegedly violating the country’s immigration law. It was his fourth known attempt to flee China.
At a court hearing in South Korea, Dong told reporters that he hopes to go to Canada to reunite with his wife and daughter, who had already been resettled there, according to South Korean media.
The path that brought him to this moment has been marked by repeated clashes with the Chinese state. Dong. a former police officer in China. lost his job in 1999 after he co-signed a letter commemorating the 10th anniversary of the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown. Amnesty International said. He was imprisoned for three years in 2001 for “inciting subversion of state power.”.
Amnesty International also said he spent more than eight months behind bars after he was arrested in 2014 for participating in a memorial for victims of the Tiananmen crackdown. Before the dinghy trip, Dong had previously escaped to Thailand and Vietnam, but authorities there deported him back to China. He also tried unsuccessfully to swim to a Taiwanese island.
Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada had not immediately commented.
In an update to the reporting, Dong is described as having one daughter in Canada, not daughters.
Dong Guangping Chinese dissident South Korea coast guard dinghy escape Toronto Air Canada Sheng Xue Amnesty International Tiananmen crackdown Canada immigration
So he paddled over in a dinghy and made it? Wild.
Air Canada flight to Toronto and he’s eating noodles?? Honestly this sounds like those human stories people share but I’m like… how did nobody stop him sooner. Coast guard detaining him again and again, wow.
Wait so Canada let him in but they were deporting everyone last year or whatever, right? I saw someone say he was just fishing or something. Also ‘violating immigration law’ like he was literally trying to escape a prison situation, come on.
I can’t even imagine. Dinghy is like, what, 3 meters? That’s tiny. But it says his daughter (singular) is in Canada now, unless the article is mixing it up. Either way I hope he gets to be with his family. Also the Tiananmen stuff… Amnesty said he was in jail for that letter, so this feels bigger than a boat story. Still kinda confused on the timeline though, May to now, like did he just sit on the sea waiting? I’m not sure.