Dissident detained in South Korea after fleeing China in rubber boat

Dong Guangping has tried to escape on several previous occasions after being jailed for his activism in China A Chinese dissident has washed up on the shores of South Korea after attempting to flee China in a rubber boat. Dong Guangping, 68, is in custody in South Korea, having been detained by the coastguard on Monday evening. He is thought to have travelled more than 30 hours by sea to reach the shores of China’s democratic neighbour. Dong has tried to escape from China on several previous occasions, according to media reports and interviews with two of his friends. In 2015, he fled with his wife and daughter for Thailand. But the Thai authorities detained and deported him back to China, despite the fact he had been given refugee status by the UN refugee agency. Back in China, Dong, a former police officer turned government critic, was jailed for more than three years. After his release in 2019, he tried to swim to Kinmen, a small Taiwanese island three miles from the Chinese coastline, but floundered at sea and was taken back to China by fishers. In 2020, he fled again to Vietnam, but was later arrested and returned to China. Zang Xihong, a Chinese dissident in Canada who uses t