Dong Guangping, a Chinese political dissident and former police officer, is detained in South Korea after being found drifting in a small rubber boat off the country’s west coast. Reports say the 68-year-old reached Korean waters after spending more than 30 hours at sea. He is thought to have entered South Korea unlawfully and is facing immigration-related action, with authorities also indicating he may be moved to an immigration detention centre.
The accounts describe Dong as a long-term critic of China’s Communist Party who has been imprisoned multiple times for his activism. Sources say he was dismissed from the police in 1999 for signing a letter commemorating the crackdown on pro-democracy protesters in Tiananmen Square in 1989. After a Tiananmen memorial event in 2014, he was detained by Chinese authorities and later attempted to leave China again.
Several outlets report this is not his first effort: he has reportedly tried to flee to South Korea on previous occasions and had previously been repatriated. One report also says he has sought reunification with family in Canada, where he was reportedly accepted for resettlement in 2015. A South Korean court rejects a request for an arrest warrant in a related case, citing issues around arrest rather than detailing detention outcomes.
