Political dissident who fled China by boat arrives in Canada, his friend says

A Chinese political dissident who fled to South Korea last month in a dinghy has arrived in Canada, his friend said on social media Saturday.

Dong Guangping was aboard a 10.8-foot inflatable boat in the waters off a western South Korean island in May when he was detained by South Korea’s coast guard for allegedly violating the country’s immigration law. It was his fourth known attempt to flee China.

Dong, a former police officer in China, had previously been detained several times for his activism. He was imprisoned for three years in 2001 for “inciting subversion of state power” and spent more than eight months behind bars after being arrested in 2014 for participating in a memorial for victims of the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown, according to past statements from Amnesty International.

He previously escaped to Thailand and Vietnam, but authorities there deported him back to China. Dong also unsuccessfully tried to swim to a Taiwanese island.

At a court hearing in South Korea after his arrest, he told reporters that he hopes to go to Canada to reunite with his wife and daughters, who have already been resettled there, according to South Korean media.

In a post Saturday on X, his friend Sheng Xue, a Chinese Canadian activist, said Dong had landed in Toronto following an Air Canada flight on Friday.

“He just had a big bowl of noodles with eggs, tomatoes and shrimps,” she wrote in the post, adding that she has spent more than 10 years trying to get him out of China.

She attached a photo of Dong in a car with her and another photo of Dong holding a bowl.

Xue wrote Saturday in a follow-up 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 added, “Souls that love freedom are full of strength.”

Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada has not immediately commented.