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NYT report: Human rights activist made three escape attempts through Vietnam, Thailand and Taiwan Appears to have taken cues from a jet-ski smuggling case three years ago… Hopes to go to Canada
Rubber boat being towed by the coast guard[Provided by East Sea Coast Guard. Resale and DB prohibited][Provided by East Sea Coast Guard. Resale and DB prohibited]
The New York Times reported that the Chinese man arrested off Taean after entering South Korea’s territorial waters by rubber boat has been identified as human rights activist Dong Guangping (董廣平). Dong, 68, has repeatedly tried to flee China.According to the NYT on the 26th (local time), Dong — a former police officer and soldier in China — was dismissed from the police in 1999 after signing a letter related to the Tiananmen incident. Authorities detained him in 2014 after he joined a Tiananmen memorial. He was released the following year and fled to Thailand with his family.While in Thailand, the former U.N. Human Rights Commission (the predecessor to today’s Human Rights Council) recognized him as a refugee. Thai authorities later charged him with illegal entry and forcibly repatriated him to China. Convicted of inciting subversion of state power, he served a prison sentence and was released in 2019.In December 2019, Dong attempted to swim to Taiwan but the effort failed. In 2020 he moved to Vietnam and hid there for more than two years; Vietnamese authorities arrested him in August 2022 and sent him back to China.Sheng Xue, a Chinese-Canadian who is assisting Dong, told the NYT that Dong appears to have taken cues from a 2023 case in which a human rights activist, identified as Chuanping, tried to enter Korea by jet-ski. According to the NYT, Chuanping attempted to reach the waters off Incheon by jet-ski in 2023, was arrested by the coast guard and spent months in custody in South Korea on illegal-entry charges before traveling to the United States in 2024 to seek asylum.Sheng told the NYT that Dong hopes to reach Canada, where his daughter lives. Dong and his family had been granted refugee status by the Canadian government when they first fled to Thailand. Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) told the NYT it cannot comment on individual cases for privacy reasons but emphasized Canada’s long-standing tradition of protecting refugees and supporting resettlement with compassion, respect and dignity.The Taean coast guard said a fishing vessel reported spotting a rubber boat with one Chinese national aboard off Taean the previous day. The coast guard arrested the rubber-boat occupant and is investigating the circumstances. A Foreign Ministry official said authorities are checking the matter and asked that specific inquiries be directed to the responsible agency (the Immigration Office of the Ministry of Justice).#NYT #Taean #illegalentry #rubberboat #ChineseDissident #Chinese #humanrightsactivist #asylumYonhap News TV inquiries and tips: KakaoTalk/Line jebo23; Mina Kim (goldmina@yna.co.kr)
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