On Monday, Dong set out from Weifang, a city in the central Shandong province, in a rubber boat with an engine, according to Canada-based activist Sheng Xue who posted on X saying she had spoken to Dong after he reached South Korea.
He had told her that he had spent more than 30 hours at sea, and was “fainting” from exhaustion by the time he reached the waters off Taean, a county on South Korea’s western coast.
South Korea’s coast guard said they rescued him after receiving a report from a fishing boat that had spotted Dong.
Dong had previously discussed his escape plan with Sheng Xue, she said, but she had told him it would be too dangerous.
“He ended up really doing it… Dong Guangping is too tenacious, too brave,” she said, adding that he had planned his escape with “meticulous checks and preparation”.
Human Rights in China (HRIC), an NGO based in New York, has urged Seoul to “uphold humanitarian principles and international human rights obligations” by not handing Dong over to China, where he “faces a grave risk of persecution and torture”.
It also called on Korean authorities to allow Dong to seek political asylum, or help facilitate his safe passage to Canada where his family members live.
“That a man nearing seventy years old was driven to cross open seas in a small inflatable boat is itself a devastating indictment of China’s human rights situation,” HRIC said.