[International] Chinese Dissident Successfully Escapes After Multiple Attempts; NYT Reports Arrival in Canada

Dong Guangping, a Chinese dissident who fled to South Korea last month in a rubber boat, told The New York Times in an interview on the 27th that he has flown to Canada. According to AFP, citing the New York Times, the 68-year-old Dong Guangping, a former police officer, has been a thorn in the side of the Beijing government for years due to his advocacy for political reform and human rights, and has been imprisoned multiple times. This dissident, who has long criticized the Chinese Communist Party, arrived in South Korea last month after several failed attempts to escape China, and was released by South Korean authorities after a brief detention. Upon arriving in Toronto, Canada, late on the 26th, Dong Guangping said, "I am very happy to be sitting here now, it feels like home." He told The New York Times that he set off from Weihai, Shandong, China, in a 3.3-meter-long rubber boat equipped with a 9.9 horsepower engine. He originally planned to go to Japan but quickly lost his way, saying, "The sea and sky were vast, and you couldn't tell which way to go." With his phone dead and the boat's engine starting to malfunction, he had to change course and head towards South Korea. Dong Guangping said he was eventually rescued by a South Korean fisherman. It is currently unclear how he was released and left South Korea. Sheng Xue, a journalist who moved from China to Canada, posted on social media platform X that after arriving in Canada, Dong Guangping "walked around the community and excitedly took photos with the Canadian flag." She also shared the photo in her post. The US-based advocacy group Human Rights in China stated that Dong Guangping was fired from his police job 10 years after the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown for signing a petition. UN experts noted that Dong Guangping was sentenced to about 3 years in prison in 2001 for "inciting subversion of state power" and was detained in 2014 for participating in Tiananmen-related activities. Dong Guangping later fled to Thailand with his family. Although his family later moved to Canada as refugees, he, despite being recognized as a refugee by the UN, was handed over to Chinese police by the Thai government in 2015. In 2019, Dong Guangping attempted to swim to Kinmen but failed, and in 2020, he was detained by local police while going to Vietnam. (Editor: Liu Xianghua)