A Chinese dissident has been detained in South Korea after attempting to flee China in a rubber boat, marking his latest escape attempt following years of activism and imprisonment.
Detention and Rescue
Dong Guangping, 68, was taken into custody by the South Korean coastguard on Monday evening after washing up on the country's shores. He is believed to have traveled more than 30 hours by sea, covering over 300 kilometers from Weifang in Shandong province to Taean, a county in western South Korea.
The coastguard released a statement on Wednesday confirming that a Chinese man in his 60s had been arrested and was being questioned on suspicion of immigration law violations, according to Reuters. The man was on a 3.3-meter boat with a 10-horsepower motor when he was spotted about 38 nautical miles off the coast.
History of Escape Attempts
Dong has tried to escape from China on several previous occasions, according to media reports and interviews with two of his friends. In 2015, he fled with his wife and daughter to Thailand, but Thai authorities detained and deported him back to China despite his refugee status from the UN refugee agency. Upon return, Dong, a former police officer turned government critic, was jailed for more than three years.
After his release in 2019, he attempted to swim to Kinmen, a small Taiwanese island three miles from the Chinese coastline, but was rescued by fishers and taken back to China. In 2020, he fled to Vietnam but was arrested and returned to China.
Contact with Supporters
Zang Xihong, a Chinese dissident in Canada who uses the pen name Sheng Xue, has been in contact with Dong since his 2015 escape attempt. She spoke to him by telephone on Tuesday morning while he was held by the coastguard in Taean. Zang said Dong was "almost unconscious" by the time he reached South Korean waters.
"I didn't know exactly when he was going to leave, but he had told me before that he would definitely find a way to get out. I knew he had that determination and that willpower," Zang said.
Activism and Imprisonment
Dong was previously jailed between 2001 and 2004 for "inciting subversion of state power." He has frequently run into trouble with authorities due to his activism related to the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre, one of China's most politically sensitive events. Zhou Fengsuo, a former student leader from the 1989 protests who has been in contact with Dong for several years, said, "He sacrificed a lot for the legacy of Tiananmen."
Parallel Case
Dong's journey mirrors that of Kwon Pyong, an ethnically Korean Chinese national who fled China for South Korea by jetski in 2023. South Korean authorities charged him with illegally entering the country, and he was not allowed to leave for nearly a year before resettling in the US.
Dong is thought to be hoping to resettle in Canada, where his family lives. The Canadian embassy in Seoul declined to comment, and the Chinese embassy in Seoul was approached for comment. A spokesperson for South Korea's coastguard declined to comment.
