Chinese dissident Dong Guangping, who fled by rubber dinghy to South Korea, arrives in Canada to reunite with family after a decade
Chinese dissident Dong Guangping arrived in Toronto on Friday night, ending years of exile attempts after a perilous rubber dinghy crossing to South Korea and his eventual release by authorities there.
Arrival in Toronto
Dong Guangping landed at Toronto Pearson International Airport late Friday on an Air Canada flight. He was met by his longtime friend Sheng Xue, a Chinese Canadian activist who helped coordinate his journey.
I'm very happy. Sitting here now, it feels like I've come home.
Sheng Xue posted on social media that Dong had a big bowl of noodles with eggs, tomatoes and shrimps, adding that she spent more than a decade trying to get him out of China.
The sea crossing
In late May, the 68-year-old former police officer departed from Weihai, Shandong, aboard a 3.3-metre inflatable boat equipped with a 9.9-horsepower engine. He had intended to reach Japan but soon lost his bearings.
The sea and sky become one boundless whiteness, and you no longer know which way to go.
His phone battery died and the outboard began to fail. A South Korean fisherman rescued him as he drifted off the country's west coast.
Detention and release
South Korea's coast guard detained Dong for allegedly violating immigration law. Prosecutors requested an arrest warrant, but a judge denied it late last month. He was later released and permitted to leave the country.
It was his fourth known attempt to flee China.
A history of failed escapes
Dong was imprisoned for three years in 2001 for "inciting subversion of state power" and detained again in 2014 after attending a memorial for victims of the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown, according to human rights groups.
In 2015 he fled with his family to Thailand, where he received United Nations refugee status and was approved for resettlement in Canada. Thai police handed him back to China days before the scheduled flight; his wife and daughters went on without him.
He later swam toward Kinmen, a Taiwanese-controlled island, in late 2019 and nearly drowned. The following month he fled to Vietnam and hid for more than two years before being arrested and returned to China.
Family reunion and official silence
His wife and daughters have been living in Canada since 2015. Sheng Xue described the arrival as the end of a decade-long effort to bring him to freedom.
Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada has not immediately commented on the case.
