Famous mainland Chinese human rights defender Dong Guangping flees China by rubber boat and lands in South Korea; this website calls on relevant United Nations bodies and international human rights organisations to provide urgent attention and rescue

On May 27, 2026, this website learned that famous mainland Chinese human rights defender Dong Guangping fled China by rubber boat and landed in South Korea. This website calls on relevant United Nations bodies and international human rights organisations to provide urgent attention and rescue so that Mr. Dong Guangping can safely reach a land of freedom.

It is reported that Kim Jukwang, the lawyer representing Dong Guangping in South Korea, confirmed that Dong Guangping had been detained in Taean, but declined to comment further.

Dong Guangping’s current situation can be found in the attached article: John Yoon: “Dissident flees China by rubber boat and lands in South Korea.”

Attached: John Yoon: Dissident flees China by rubber boat and lands in South Korea

The 68-year-old Dong Guangping has fled China at least three times, but was repatriated each time. His friends hope the outcome will be different this time.

John Yoon Seoul, May 26, 2026

A Chinese dissident who has openly criticised the Chinese Communist Party previously fled to Thailand and Vietnam and also attempted to swim to Taiwan, but was ultimately repatriated to China each time. Despite repeated calls from the international community to allow him to go to another country to seek asylum, he was still sentenced to prison, deprived of the right to work and barred from leaving the country.

Now, two friends and his lawyer told The New York Times that the 68-year-old dissident Dong Guangping is being detained by South Korean police after fleeing China by sea. He arrived in South Korea on Monday evening, May 25, aboard a rubber boat.

Such clandestine journeys are extremely rare. In the previous known case, Chinese dissident Quan Ping travelled from China to South Korea on a personal watercraft three years ago.

Officials from the Coast Guard in Taean County on South Korea’s western coast said in a statement on Tuesday, May 26, that they had detained a Chinese national who was found by fishermen sitting in a rubber boat on Monday evening. A Coast Guard official said by telephone that the detained man’s surname and year of birth matched those of Dong Guangping.

The official said the man was found aboard a light-grey rubber boat 11 feet (approximately 3.35 metres) long and equipped with a 9.9-horsepower engine. The authorities are investigating him on suspicion of violating immigration law.

Dong Guangping’s arrival in South Korea had not previously been reported.

His friends said they hoped he could reunite with his family in Canada. Ten years ago, the Canadian government approved settlement applications for him and his family. They believe the case of another activist, Quan Ping, is a potentially positive sign—he was sentenced for illegal entry and spent several months in a South Korean prison, but was allowed to fly to the United States to seek asylum the following year.

One of Dong Guangping’s daughters, who lives in Canada, declined to comment through Sheng Xue, one of the two friends who confirmed Dong Guangping’s journey to South Korea. Global Affairs Canada, the Canadian Embassy in Seoul and China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Kim Jukwang, the lawyer representing Dong Guangping in South Korea, confirmed that Dong Guangping had been detained in Taean, but declined to comment further.

Activist Sheng Xue said that Dong Guangping called her three times after arriving in South Korea. But because the calls appeared on her phone as coming from an unknown number, she did not answer them at the time.

She later received a call from Chinese dissident and mutual friend Zhu Yufu, who now lives in Los Angeles. Zhu Yufu told her that Dong Guangping was trying to contact her. In a text message to The New York Times, Zhu Yufu confirmed that Sheng Xue had been helping Dong Guangping.

She said she spoke by telephone with an official from the South Korean Coast Guard, who told her that Dong Guangping had been detained because he arrived by boat.

The official asked why Dong Guangping had come there. She said he was a human rights defender who had repeatedly attempted to flee China.

Sheng Xue said that Dong Guangping was born in 1958 and grew up in Zhengzhou in the family of a senior official. He had worked as a police officer and served in the military.

In a 2022 letter, United Nations human rights experts wrote that Dong Guangping was dismissed from the police in 1999 for signing a letter about the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre in Beijing. He was subsequently sentenced to three years in prison for “inciting subversion of state power,” a charge frequently used against dissidents and human rights lawyers.

The United Nations experts wrote that in May 2014, Dong Guangping was detained by Chinese authorities and held in solitary confinement for several months for participating in activities commemorating the Tiananmen massacre. He was arrested in July of that year on suspicion of “picking quarrels and provoking trouble” and released in February 2015.

In September 2015, he fled to Thailand with his family and was granted refugee status by the United Nations refugee agency. But the experts said that just before they were scheduled to fly to Canada to settle the following month, Thai police detained Dong Guangping together with another Chinese man.

Chinese state media reported that the Chinese government cooperated with Thai authorities to repatriate him to China in November of that year.

In July 2018, he was sentenced to more than three years in prison for “inciting subversion of state power” and “illegal border crossing.” Sheng Xue said he was released in August 2019, but thereafter remained subject to police surveillance and harassment, with extremely limited financial resources.

That December, he evaded local police and travelled to China’s southeastern coast, where he began swimming towards Kinmen, the democratically self-governed island controlled by Taiwan. However, he got into trouble at sea.

“Sheng Xue, save me!” she recalled him saying at the time. After floating at sea for about eight hours, he called her while trying to keep himself from sinking and said, “I’m swimming towards Taiwan.”

“Oh my God, swimming to Taiwan?” she recalled saying to him. “That’s impossible.”

She immediately requested a search and rescue operation from the Taiwanese authorities, but Dong Guangping was eventually rescued by a fishing boat from mainland China. At the time, she asked him to take a selfie from the fishing boat as proof that he was safe. He did so.

According to screenshots Sheng Xue provided to The New York Times, Dong Guangping wrote in a text message to her at the time: “The international community is calling on the mainland government to allow me to leave and reunite with my family. It is precisely because I want to reunite with my family that I took this risk. They may sentence me again.”

The fishermen eventually handed him over to the local police station, after which the police escorted him back to his hometown in Henan Province.

In January 2020, Dong Guangping fled China again and entered Vietnam, sending Sheng Xue a selfie from a taxi. Sheng Xue said he lived there under an assumed identity for more than two years. But Vietnamese authorities arrested him in August 2022.

Sheng Xue said she learned from Dong Guangping’s family in 2023 that he had once again been detained by Chinese police. She said that after being held for at least a year, he was eventually released and returned to his hometown in Henan, but still had no income or pension. “He has lost everything,” she said.

Therefore, Sheng Xue was not surprised when she learned on Monday that he had fled to South Korea. In fact, she revealed that Dong Guangping had told her last year that the experience of Quan Ping fleeing to South Korea on a personal watercraft had inspired him.

After confirming Dong Guangping’s arrival in South Korea, she contacted Canadian officials and asked them to help ensure his safety. “Dong Guangping’s life experience tells us what freedom truly means to a person’s life,” she said.

Attached: Dong Guangping’s biography:

Dong Guangping: Born in 1958, from Zhengzhou, Henan Province; formerly a police officer; 2•2 June Fourth commemoration participant, democratic dissident, human rights defender and political prisoner detained by China.

In 2001, he was sentenced by the authorities to three years in prison for participating in democratic political activities and being charged with “inciting subversion of state power.” After being released from prison in 2004, he continued to uphold democratic principles, demanded that the authorities redress the June Fourth case and called for a path of democratic constitutional government. On February 2, 2014, because he personally travelled to Huaxian County, Henan, the hometown of Zhao Ziyang, to participate in a “June Fourth commemoration” activity, he was summoned and his home was raided by police in Luoyang, Henan Province, on May 26–27, 2014, and criminally detained by Zhengzhou police on suspicion of “gathering to disrupt public-place order.” On July 2, 2014, Zhengzhou police changed the charge and formally arrested him on suspicion of “picking quarrels and provoking trouble”; he was detained at the No. 3 Detention Centre in Zhengzhou, Henan Province. On February 11, 2015, he was released on bail pending trial. In September 2015, after his family fled to Thailand to seek refuge, he was arrested by Thai police on October 28 on suspicion of “illegal border crossing,” despite holding a “certificate for asylum applicants” issued by the United Nations refugee agency (actually a protection letter), and detained at the Sathorn Immigration Detention Centre in Bangkok, Thailand. After efforts and urgent appeals by democrats from various sides, the United Nations refugee agency learned of the case and agreed on November 6, 2015, to activate an emergency channel, but he was nevertheless escorted back to China by Chinese Communist Party police. On November 14 of that year, he was criminally detained by Chongqing police on suspicion of “illegal border crossing.” In June 2016, Chongqing police changed the charge and formally arrested him on suspicion of “subverting state power”; he was held at the No. 2 Detention Centre 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 Cell Block 9 of Yudu Prison in Chongqing. He was released after completing his sentence on August 2, 2019. He subsequently entered Vietnam illegally 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 was unreachable from then on. After being detained for two months, he was repatriated to mainland China by the Vietnamese authorities and, beginning in October 2022, was placed under residential surveillance at a designated location for two months. He was later sentenced to 11 months in prison for “illegal border crossing” and released after completing his sentence on October 20, 2023. Before that, he had been detained at the No. 3 Detention Centre in Zhengzhou, Henan Province.