Dong Guangping has repeatedly tried to flee China. Image: Amnesty International
June 28, 2026, 11:17 amJune 28, 2026, 11:17 am
According to consistent reports, Chinese government critic Dong Guangping, who fled to South Korea, has left for his dream country of Canada after weeks of uncertainty. As activists reported on social networks, the human rights activist arrived in the Canadian city of Toronto by plane on Friday.
This marked the end of Dong’s years-long endeavor to leave China. At the end of May, the democracy activist reached South Korea after a 30-hour journey in a motorized dinghy. He already thought he would die of exhaustion, Dong, who said he had never piloted an inflatable boat before, recently told the New York Times. “I was already in a terrible state,” he continued.
Uncertain days in South Korea
In South Korea, however, it remained uncertain what would happen next for the 68-year-old. The local district judge had rejected an application for pre-trial detention due to illegal entry, as South Korea’s official news agency Yonhap reported at the time. According to his own words, Dong first came to a center for refugees in Incheon, near the capital Seoul. According to Yonhap, he had expressed a desire to seek asylum in Canada, where his daughter and wife live.
Dong once served as a police officer in China until he signed a public petition in 1999 on the 10th anniversary of the bloody crackdown on pro-democracy protests at Tiananmen Square in Beijing and was subsequently fired. In the years that followed, the authorities repeatedly arrested him because of his activism. Since 2015, Dong had tried to leave China several times, but was repeatedly deported to his home country – most recently from Vietnam in 2022. (sda/dpa)