A roughly 40-hour sea journey on a dinghy with a dying phone. Detention in South Korea. That’s just part of what Chinese dissident Dong Guangping endured to escape his native country. He arrived late last week in Canada, a destination he had eyed for more than a decade.
Dong had been locked up in China several times, including for his activities commemorating the 1989 crackdown on pro-democracy protesters in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square and past efforts to flee.
“It’s like living in a cage. Very suffocating,” he said in an online video interview with The Associated Press from Toronto, referring to the lack of freedom of expression in China.
After his release from prison, the 68-year-old dissident said he was unable to receive retirement benefits or renew his passport and was under constant police monitoring.
He attempted to flee at least three previous times: in 2015 to Thailand, where authorities deported him back to China; in 2019 when he tried to swim to a Taiwanese island off China's east coast; and in 2020, when he reached Vietnam, only to be deported back again.
Last month, he tried again.
‘No point fearing death’
In the early hours of May 24, he set off in a gray rubber dinghy fitted with an engine from Weihai, a coastal city in eastern China’s Shandong province, under fine weather. He was eyeing Japan, confident that the government there would not send him back to China.
But the next day brought fog. When he noticed his phone, which he relied on for GPS navigation, was on its last bar, he became terrified. His power bank also died. He quickly switched to his contingency plan — South Korea.
Dong recalled that dread ran deep because his tiny boat might capsize if the winds and waves picked up. But he had no way to return and shook off the fear of death.
“Living conditions back in the country are so terrible that being alive is little different than being dead. So there is no point fearing death," he said. “If you move forward, there’s a chance at life.”
In the evening, he saw lights in the distance and moved toward them. The first vessel could not hear his cries for help and left. Later, he encountered a fishing boat that agreed to pull him on board. He asked the fishers to call the police to help him.
The South Korean Coast Guard detained him for allegedly violating the country’s immigration law. They sought a warrant to formally arrest him, but a court refused, saying it’s “difficult to recognize sufficient grounds and necessity” for his arrest.
From refugee center to Canada
Dong was later sent to a refugee center in Incheon, a port city near Seoul. Earlier this month, the U.N. refugee agency contacted him via video call, he said.
A refugee center manager later asked about his height, weight and his eye color. He was worried at first but it turned out to be a good sign. His lawyer told him it was at the request of the Canadian diplomatic mission, he said.
About a week later, Dong boarded a flight and he arrived in Toronto Friday. He was still unclear what legal procedures were involved in his move, but guessed it was based on cooperation between the South Korean and Canadian governments and the U.N. agency.
“I feel very surprised, extremely surprised. It's like still in a dream. It's very fast,” he said.
He believed the resettlement status in Canada that his family secured in 2015, before Thai authorities deported him back to China, was still valid.
The Canadian Embassy in South Korea declined to comment on Dong's case. The U.N. refugee agency and the South Korean government did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Dong vows to press on with his activism
Dong said he feels at home after arriving in Toronto, saying he finally tasted freedom for the first time in over a decade.
"There’s not even a hint of fear,” he said.
He hopes to make a living, possibly by being a truck driver or an Uber driver.
But the joy doesn't help Dong let go of the deportations by the Thai and Vietnamese authorities.
In 2015, Dong and his family went to Thailand to seek refugee status from the U.N. refugee agency, but Thai authorities later arrested him and returned him to China, according to Amnesty International. His ex-wife and daughter managed to settle in Canada.
The activist fled to Vietnam in 2020, but was sent back in 2022. He was jailed each time he was returned to China. He said he plans to consult a lawyer to see if he can sue both Thailand and Vietnam.
For Dong, the fight is far from over. He also plans to press on in his call for China's democratization.
In the late 1990s, the former police officer distributed leaflets with his articles on topics such as the Tiananmen crackdown. He was imprisoned for three years in 2001 for inciting subversion of state power.
He also spent more than eight months behind bars over his participation in a memorial for victims of the crackdown after being arrested in 2014, he said.
“My ultimate goal is for China to achieve constitutional democracy," he said.
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Associated Press writer Kim Tong-hyung in Seoul, South Korea, contributed to this report.
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