A rubber boat found near the beach in Taean County, South Chungcheong Province, June 4, 2020 / Courtesy of Taean Coast Guard
SEOUL — A Chinese dissident who has long been a thorn in Beijing's side has escaped from China to Korea on a rubber boat, his lawyer confirmed on Wednesday.
Dong Guangping, a former policeman who was imprisoned for his activism, was found by Korean authorities on Monday night drifting off the country's west coast on a 3.3-metre rubber boat with a 9.9-horsepower engine, according to police.
He was taken to shore for questioning on suspicion of violating immigration laws.
The man's lawyer, Kim Joo-kwang, confirmed his identity to AFP. He declined to say from where Dong launched his boat.
Dong, 68, is known for his opposition to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and his advocacy for political reform and human rights.
He was dismissed from his work as a policeman after signing a petition a decade after Beijing's 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown, according to US-based advocacy group Human Rights in China.
He later spent about three years in prison from 2001 for "inciting subversion of state power", UN experts said, and was detained again in 2014 over Tiananmen-related activities.
Dong fled to Thailand with his family, who later resettled in Canada as refugees, but Thai authorities handed him over to Chinese police in 2015 despite his U.N.-recognised refugee status.
Dong's attorney told AFP his client's current situation is "highly likely to be a political asylum case."
Source: Korea Times News
