Chinese dissident Dong Guangping, 68, formerly a police officer and longtime critic of the Chinese Communist Party, arrived in Toronto, Canada late on June 26, 2026, after successfully escaping China following several failed attempts [1, 2]. Dong expressed relief upon arrival, saying, "I feel like I am home" [1].

Dong fled China in May 2026 by piloting a 3.3-meter inflatable rubber motorized boat with a 9.9-horsepower engine from Weihai in Shandong province [1, 2]. He initially aimed for Japan but lost direction amid vast sea and sky, forcing him to change course to South Korea, recalling, "The sea and sky were vast and indistinguishable; you can't tell direction" [1].

On May 26, 2026, Dong was rescued by a South Korean fisherman near South Korea's west coast and detained by the Coast Guard for violating immigration laws [3, 4]. A South Korean court rejected the police's arrest request due to insufficient grounds, and Dong was transferred to an immigration office and refugee center near Incheon [4].

The United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) connected with Dong by video call in early June. Cooperation between South Korea, Canada, and UNHCR enabled Dong to board a flight to Toronto on June 26 [2, 4]. Upon arrival, he said, "I am very surprised. It feels like a dream; the process was very fast" [2].

Dong has a decades-long history of political activism and human rights advocacy. He was fired from the police in 1999 for signing a petition commemorating the 1989 Tiananmen crackdown and sentenced to about three years in prison in 2001 for "inciting subversion of state power" [1, 2]. He faced multiple detentions linked to Tiananmen-related activities through 2014 [1, 2].

In 2015, Dong fled with his family to Thailand and obtained UN refugee status but was forcibly returned to China by Thai authorities and imprisoned. His wife and daughter later resettled in Canada as refugees [1, 2].

Dong made further escape efforts: in 2019, he tried swimming to Kinmen island but failed and was returned to China; in 2020, he fled to Vietnam but was detained and deported back in 2022 [1, 5].

Dong said, "The living environment at home was extremely harsh; living was almost no different from being dead" [2]. He vowed to continue advocating for democracy, stating, "My ultimate goal is to achieve constitutional democracy in China" [2].