About a month ago, the Chinese dissident Dong Guangping spent 36 hours at sea in an inflatable rubber boat with a sputtering engine, a peeling face and a dying phone before getting detained in South Korea. But on Saturday, Mr. Dong, 68, told The New York Times that he had flown to Toronto, ending a treacherous and decade-long search for freedom. He also recounted details of his voyage across the Yellow Sea from China to South Korea for the first time. Mr. Dong, a critic of China’s ruling Communist Party,…
Tag: Sheng Xue (1962- )
A Dissident Escapes China by Rubber Boat and Lands in South Korea
A Chinese critic of his country’s ruling Communist Party had already escaped to Thailand and Vietnam and tried swimming to Taiwan — only to be sent back to mainland China each time. He was jailed, prohibited from working and barred from leaving, despite international calls to let him seek asylum elsewhere. Now the dissident, Dong Guangping, 68, is in custody in South Korea after escaping China by sea, two of his friends and his lawyer told The New York Times. They said he arrived in a rubber boat late Monday.…