Kelly Ng
Frontline Defenders
A Chinese dissident who fled his country on a rubber boat has been detained in South Korea after spending 30 hours at sea.
Dong Guangping, a former police officer and human rights activist, was found in Korean waters on Monday night.
South Korea's coast guard told the BBC that Dong is under investigation for suspected immigration violations and his case will be referred to prosecutors.
The 68-year-old had been jailed in China several times for his activism, such as taking part in events to commemorate the Tiananmen Square crackdown. Dong had escaped China at least three times previously, but was sent back each time.
On Monday, Dong set out from Weifang, a city in the central Shandong province, in a rubber boat with an engine, according to Canada-based activist Sheng Xue who posted on X saying she had spoken to Dong after he reached South Korea.
He had told her that he had spent more than 30 hours at sea, and was "fainting" from exhaustion by the time he reached the waters off Taean, a county on South Korea's western coast.
South Korea's coast guard said they rescued him after receiving a report from a fishing boat that had spotted Dong.
Dong had previously discussed his escape plan with Sheng Xue, she said, but she had told him it would be too dangerous.
"He ended up really doing it... Dong Guangping is too tenacious, too brave," she said, adding that he had planned his escape with "meticulous checks and preparation".
Human Rights in China (HRIC), an NGO based in New York, has urged Seoul to "uphold humanitarian principles and international human rights obligations" by not handing Dong over to China, where he "faces a grave risk of persecution and torture".
It also called on Korean authorities to allow Dong to seek political asylum, or help facilitate his safe passage to Canada where his family members live.
"That a man nearing seventy years old was driven to cross open seas in a small inflatable boat is itself a devastating indictment of China's human rights situation," HRIC said.
Multiple escapes
In 1999, Dong was fired from the police force after he signed a petition to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the brutal Tiananmen crackdown on pro-democracy protesters.
Then in 2001, he was imprisoned for three years for "inciting subversion of state power". He was jailed again in 2014 for participating in another Tiananmen commemoration event, according to Amnesty International.
He first escaped China in October 2015 when he travelled to Bangkok with his wife and daughter, where they were granted refugee status by the United Nations and approved for resettlement in Canada.
But days before they were scheduled to leave for Canada, Thai authorities deported Dong to China along with another dissident who had also been given refugee status. The incident triggered fierce criticism from the UN.
Dong was eventually jailed for "inciting subversion" and "crossing the national border illegally".
His second escape attempt took place in 2019 when he swam from Shishi city in Fujian province towards Kinmen, a small Taiwanese island. But Dong was picked up by Chinese fishermen who handed him to police.
Then in 2020, Dong managed to flee China and entered Vietnam. He lived in hiding for two years in Hanoi, but was eventually detained by Vietnamese police and deported back home.
He was jailed for 11 months for crossing national borders illegally, and released in October 2023.
Dong is not the first Chinese dissident to flee across the sea to South Korea.
In 2023, another Chinese activist Kwon Pyong fled to South Korea on a jet ski. He was initially detained on immigration charges but later resettled in the US.
Additional reporting by Hosu Lee.
