cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/55297201

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A Chinese political dissident who had fled to South Korea last month in a dinghy has arrived in Canada, his friend said on social media on Saturday.

Dong Guangping was aboard a 3.3-meter (10.8-foot) inflatable boat in the waters off a western South Korean island in May when he was detained by South Korea’s coast guard for allegedly violating the country’s immigration law. It was his fourth known attempt to flee China.

Appearing at a court hearing in South Korea, he told reporters that he hopes to go to Canada to reunite with his wife and daughters, who have already been resettled there, according to South Korean media.

In a post Saturday on X, his friend Sheng Xue, a Chinese Canadian activist, said Dong had landed in Toronto following an Air Canada flight on Friday.

“He just had a big bowl of noodles with eggs, tomatoes and shrimps,” she wrote in the post, adding that she has spent more than 10 years trying to get him out of China.

[…]

    • MrQuallzin@pie.eyeofthestorm.place
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      7 days ago

      He was imprisoned for three years in 2001 for “inciting subversion of state power” and spent more than eight months behind bars after being arrested in 2014 for participating in a memorial for victims of the Tiananmen crackdown

      Just because a something is lawful doesn’t make it right.

      • TimothyOilpants@lemmy.ca
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        7 days ago

        According to you?

        Your moral code should define the legal codes for all humankind? Do you not believe in the right to self-determination?

        • BigJohnnyHines@lemmy.ca
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          6 days ago

          Yet you seem to think the current Chinese government’s legal code should define morality for all humankind? lol

          • TimothyOilpants@lemmy.ca
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            6 days ago

            …And a good chunk of the world has colonial capitalism and centuries of out-group exploitation to thank for whatever prosperity their nation enjoys. Also, a good chunk of the world’s high-idealed systems would undoubtedly crumble under the weight of 1,400,000,000 people.

            I’m not saying that everything China does is how I would like to see things done; but I suspect we could agree that letting dissension fester until radicals storm your houses of government and compromise your elections isn’t a workable solution either.

            As a secular humanist, I have to weigh the casualties of a system against the good it provides its body populace. With most liberal western democracies currently facing extreme wealth disparity, working class desperation, and some level of existential crises over ideological extremism; maybe we should reserve some level of judgement until WE have lifted 800,000,000 people out of poverty.

            I’m not sure that any of the ongoing experiments in absolute individual liberty are going particularly well…

    • BCsven@lemmy.ca
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      7 days ago

      You have to read the article.

      Dong, a former police officer in China, has been detained several times for his activism. He lost his job as a police officer in 1999 after he co-signed a letter commemorating the 10th anniversary of the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown, according to Amnesty International.

        • BCsven@lemmy.ca
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          6 days ago

          Only illegal In a censorship regime, not a crime anywhere else, so he’s free to travel to other countries

          • TimothyOilpants@lemmy.ca
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            6 days ago

            Are you under the impression that fleeing felons under warrant in other countries are given travel documents and allowed to exit before standing trial for their crimes?

            What magical world do you live in?

            …and FWIW, we have people in prison right now in Canada for violation of prohibited speech laws.

            • Atomic@sh.itjust.works
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              5 days ago

              Yes. This happens, literally, every single day across the world. We even have a word for it. Asylum

              So this begs the question, what magical world do you live in?

            • BCsven@lemmy.ca
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              6 days ago

              Duh, he’s claiming asylum obviously from being a political prisoner. You don’t ask permission to leave. Canada accepts lots of asylum seekers

              • TimothyOilpants@lemmy.ca
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                6 days ago

                So you think it would be appropriate for another country to grant asylum to a Canadian citizen, if they fled prosecution for a Section 318 or 319 offense?

                • BCsven@lemmy.ca
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                  6 days ago

                  If it was a human rights violation or clearly a political arrest. Just because a country can imprision you doesn’t mean it is just.

                  Like thr UK arresting people for having a shirt that says Peace for Palistine, or making statements about the genocide happening. That’s no really about a terror thrrwt its the leaders who’ve made stance alligiances wanting to continue to hold power.

                  • TimothyOilpants@lemmy.ca
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                    6 days ago

                    Got it, so YOUR country’s government has the right to decide what people can and cannot promote publicly, but other countries do not.

                    I see you are big on nuance…