Renowned mainland Chinese human rights defender Dong Guangping arrives in Toronto, Canada, on Air Canada on June 26, 2026

On June 27, 2026, this outlet learned that renowned mainland Chinese human rights defender Dong Guangping fled China by rubber boat on May 25, 2026, and reached South Korea after more than 30 hours at sea. Amid the close attention, appeals and vigorous rescue efforts from all sides, Dong Guangping finally arrived in Toronto, Canada, on Air Canada on June 26, 2026.

Dong Guangping’s biography: Born in 1958, a native of Zhengzhou, Henan Province, he was formerly a police officer, a 2•2 June Fourth memorial participant, a pro-democracy dissident, a human rights defender, and a former political prisoner detained by China.

In 2001, he was sentenced by the authorities to three years in prison for participating in democratic political activities, on charges of “inciting subversion of state power”; after being released from prison in 2004, he continued to uphold democratic ideals, demanding that the authorities redress the June Fourth case and take the path of democratic constitutionalism;

On February 2, 2014, because he personally went to participate in a “June Fourth memorial” activity held in Huaxian, Henan, the hometown of Zhao Ziyang, he was summoned and his home was searched by the Luoyang police in Henan Province on May 26–27, 2014, and was criminally detained by the Zhengzhou police on suspicion of “gathering a crowd to disrupt order in a public place”; on July 2, 2014, the Zhengzhou police changed the charge and formally arrested him on suspicion of “picking quarrels and provoking trouble,” and he was held at the Third Detention Center in Zhengzhou, Henan Province; on February 11, 2015, he was released on bail; in September 2015, because his family had fled to Thailand to seek refuge, he was arrested by Thai police on October 28 on suspicion of “illegal entry,” despite holding a “certificate for asylum seekers” issued by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (in fact, a protection letter), and was detained at the Sathorn Immigration Detention Center in Bangkok, Thailand; following efforts and urgent appeals by pro-democracy figures from all sides, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees learned of the case and agreed on November 6, 2015, to activate an emergency channel, but he was nevertheless deported and escorted back to China by the Chinese Communist police, and on November 14 of the same year was criminally detained by the Chongqing police on suspicion of “illegally crossing the national border”; in June 2016, the Chongqing police changed the charge and formally arrested him on suspicion of “subversion of state power,” and he was held at the Second Detention Center in Chongqing; on July 13, 2018, the Chongqing No. 1 Intermediate People’s Court sentenced him to three years and six months in prison on the same charge, and he served his sentence in Unit 9 of Yudu Prison in Chongqing; on August 2, 2019, he was released after completing his sentence;

He later also illegally entered Vietnam and remained in Hanoi for three years; on August 11, 2022, he was suddenly arrested by the Vietnamese Communist government at his rented residence, and has been unreachable ever since; after being detained for two months, he was deported to mainland China by the Vietnamese authorities, and from October 2022 was placed under residential surveillance at a designated location for two months; he was later sentenced to 11 months in prison on charges of “illegally crossing the national border”; he was released after completing his sentence on October 20, 2023. He had previously been detained at the Third Detention Center in Zhengzhou, Henan Province.