SEOUL—A Chinese dissident rode the waves in a rubber dinghy for more than 30 hours to reach South Korea this week in a daring bid to escape what he sees as political persecution in China—and landing in a country that turns away most refugee applicants.
Dong Guangping, a 68-year-old former police officer, had been detained and jailed in China several times for his activism and some of his past attempts to flee the country.
His escape this week was at least his fourth attempt at trying to leave China and was aimed at reuniting with his family in Canada. The route was an unusual and risky one for a Chinese dissident.
On Monday evening, South Korean fishermen spotted a suspicious rubber boat in the waters between China and the Korean Peninsula. South Korea’s coast guard said they had detained a Chinese man in his 60s with the surname Dong in waters off the west coast of the peninsula.
South Korean President Lee Jae Myung, a former human-rights lawyer, has made it a priority to stabilize Seoul’s strained relations with Beijing. Dong’s arrival could force his administration to navigate its relationship with China while facing a domestic electorate that overwhelmingly opposes South Korea accepting asylum seekers.
Dong has been prosecuted by Chinese authorities for his human-rights activism and advocacy of democratic freedoms, according to a 2022 letter by United Nations special rapporteurs.
Dong was jailed from 2001 to 2004 on a charge of “inciting subversion of state power,” and he was detained again in 2014 after participating in an event honoring the victims of the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests. He was held for more than eight months and fled to Thailand, where he sought asylum in 2015. He was recognized as a refugee by the U.N.’s refugee agency, but he was detained by Thai police and sent back to China days ahead of his family’s planned resettlement in Canada. His family moved there without him.
After his return to China, Dong was detained for more than 30 months before he was brought to trial in 2018, when he was convicted and sentenced for “inciting subversion of state power” and illegally crossing national borders, according to the U.N. letter.
After his release in 2019, Dong attempted to leave China again, this time by swimming to Kinmen, a group of Taiwanese-controlled islands off the Chinese mainland. But he floundered at sea and was picked up by Chinese fishermen, who handed him to the police.
In 2020, Dong crossed the border into Vietnam and hid for more than two years before local police detained him. He was sent back to China, where he was jailed for 11 months, according to Front Line Defenders, a Dublin-based rights group.
An increasing number of Chinese citizens have tried to relocate abroad, whether to seek new opportunities or evade political persecution. The U.N. refugee agency counted nearly 181,000 Chinese seeking asylum in 2024, up from roughly 15,400 at the end of 2012, the year Chinese leader Xi Jinping took power.
Dong is being questioned on suspicion of violating South Korea’s immigration laws. He would only be allowed to apply for refugee status after criminal penalties have been completed, South Korea’s Justice Ministry said Thursday. Dong’s lawyer couldn’t be reached for comment.
A court dismissed an arrest warrant for Dong on Thursday. The immigration charges will proceed but without detention, South Korea’s coast guard said.
Seoul denies most refugee applications; last year, only 1% of applicants were granted refugee status.
In 2018, the arrival of more than 500 Yemeni refugees brought domestic criticism and protests. The backlash was largely rooted in South Korea’s cultural emphasis on ethnic homogeneity and the prevailing public perception that refugees pose a threat to social stability.
In 2022, South Korea helped roughly 400 Afghans leave their country after the Taliban seized power, but it designated them as “special contributors” rather than refugees because they had employment ties with South Korean agencies.
Others have attempted to escape China and seek refugee status in South Korea. In 2023, Chinese activist Kwon Pyong, who is an ethnic Korean, fled to South Korea on a jet ski, carrying binoculars and a compass. South Korean authorities charged him with illegal entry and gave him a suspended prison sentence. He later went to the U.S. to seek asylum.
Human Rights in China, a nongovernmental organization based in New York, urged the South Korean government to uphold humanitarian principles and ensure Dong isn’t returned to China.
A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman said she wasn’t aware of the matter when asked about Dong at a briefing on Wednesday. South Korea’s Foreign Ministry said the details of the incident were under review.
Other Chinese dissidents have attempted to flee by sea, notably pro-democracy activists from Hong Kong. Several succeeded in reaching Taiwan by boat but others were caught.
Beijing-born Canadian activist Zang Xihong posted on X that she had spoken to Dong after he reached South Korea. She said Dong had discussed his plan to flee by boat before making his daring escape.
“I thought it was way too dangerous,” Zang, who goes by the pen name Sheng Xue, wrote on X. “But he actually went ahead and did it.”
Write to Dasl Yoon at dasl.yoon@wsj.com and Chun Han Wong at chunhan.wong@wsj.com
