Court rejects detention warrant for Chinese dissident who traveled 300 kilometers in rubber boat to escape homeland

A court on Thursday rejected a warrant to detain Dong Guangping, a Chinese dissident who was arrested off the coast of Taean, South Chungcheong, after fleeing his country in a small rubber boat.  

“It is difficult to recognize the grounds, necessity and proportionality of detention and conclude that there is a risk of flight or destruction of evidence,” ruled the Daejeon District Court. 

The Coast Guard, which currently has Dong in custody, said it is deciding whether to place him in an immigration detention facility and where to house him in the meantime.

Dong was detained at around 9:36 p.m. on Monday in the waters northwest of Seo-Gyeokryeolbi Island off Taean, after a Korean fishing vessel reported sighting him. Coast Guard officers dispatched a patrol boat, arrested Dong and transferred him to the Coast Guard station at around 3 a.m., investigating officials said.

The Guardian on Wednesday reported said that Dong had traveled more than 300 kilometers (186 miles) during the escape attempt and was found "almost unconscious."

Dong told the guards that he had intended to go to Japan, but his 11-foot rubber boat with a 9.9-horsepower engine broke down and drifted toward Taean. “It was not an illegal entry, but an escape from China to seek help,” he reportedly said, per the investigating officials.

Korean authorities charged Dong with charges of violating immigration law.  He does not speak Korean and is communicating through an interpreter, with a public-interest law firm providing legal assistance.

Once the investigation is complete, Dong will be referred to prosecutors. If convicted and sentenced, he is likely to be deported to a country other than China.

A Coast Guard official said the case of Kwon Pyong, another Chinese dissident who attempted to enter Korea illegally by jet ski from China's Shandong Peninsula in August 2023, would likely serve as a reference. Kwon, who had been detained in 2016 after posting photos of himself wearing a T-shirt bearing a phrase mocking President Xi Jinping, received a suspended prison sentence at trial and was subsequently sent to the United States.

The New York Times on Tuesday reported that Dong is a Chinese human rights activist with family in Canada, where his daughter lives. He reportedly wants to travel there. 

According to the New York Times report, Dong previously served as a police officer and soldier in China before being dismissed from the police force in 1999 after signing a letter related to the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown. He subsequently became a human rights activist and was detained by Chinese authorities in 2014 following his attendance at a Tiananmen commemoration, and was sentenced to prison on charges that included incitement to subvert state power.

In 2015, he fled to Thailand with his family and was granted refugee status by the United Nations, but was forcibly repatriated to China by Thai authorities. In 2019, he attempted to swim to Taiwan, and in 2020, he fled to Vietnam, where he hid for more than two years before being arrested again and returned to China.

This article was originally written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom.

BY KIM BANG-HYUN [[email protected]]