A Chinese political dissident arrived in Canada after a perilous journey that saw him flee to South Korea last month in a small dinghy.
Dong Guangping’s arrival marks the culmination of his fourth attempt to escape China.
Mr Dong was detained by South Korea’s coast guard in May after arriving on a western island in a 3.3m inflatable boat, allegedly violating immigration law.
At a court hearing later, he expressed his desire to move to Canada, where his wife and daughters were already resettled, according to South Korean media.
His arrival on an Air Canada flight in Toronto on Friday was confirmed by Chinese-Canadian activist Sheng Xue.
“He just had a big bowl of noodles with eggs, tomatoes and shrimps,” Ms Xue wrote on X, adding that she had spent over a decade trying to help Mr Dong leave China.
Mr Dong, a former police officer, was detained multiple times for his activism in China. Amnesty International reported his three-year imprisonment in 2001 for “inciting subversion of state power” and an eight-month detention in 2014 for a Tiananmen Square crackdown memorial. His previous escape attempts included deportation from Thailand and Vietnam, and an unsuccessful swim to a Taiwanese island.
Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada did not immediately comment on his arrival.
