Dong Guangping

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Dong Guangping (Chinese: 董广平; born 13 April 1958) is a Chinese human rights activist who was disappeared in 2022 in Vietnam.[1]

Early life[edit]

Dong Guangping was born in Zhengzhou, China, in 1958 to a father who was a military general.[2] He grew up in a wealthy family and his brothers joined the armed and became colonels.[2]

Career[edit]

Dong worked as a police inspector and a soldier before becoming a human-rights activist.[2] He was fired from the police force in 1999 for signing a letter about the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests and massacre, before being jailed for three years.[3] He is known in China for speaking out against China's censorship of news about the Tiananmen Square protests and massacre.[4] Dong was taken from a Thai immigration centre by Chinese police in 2015 while he was attempting to resettle to Canada.[5][6] The police returned him to China where he was jailed for three years.[5]

He fled China for Vietnam in 2020.[4] Dong was arrested in Hanoi by Vietnamese authorities August 22, 2022.[4] Canada offered him political asylum.[2] As of mid February 2023, the Vietnam government had declined to release any information about his whereabouts.[4]

Personal life[edit]

Dong's daughter Katherine Dong and family live in Canada, where they relocated in 2015.[4] Dong was aged 64 in February 2023.[4]

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ "Dong Guangping 董广平". Network of Chinese Human Rights Defenders. May 16, 2019. Retrieved December 1, 2023.
  2. ^ a b c d "'Please tell me where my father is': Toronto woman seeks release of Chinese human rights activist detained in Vietnam". thestar.com. 2022-11-17. Retrieved 2023-02-14.
  3. ^ Bronskill, Jim (2022-11-17). "Militant chinois: Une Canadienne craint que son père soit détenu en Chine". La Presse (in Canadian French). Retrieved 2023-02-14.
  4. ^ a b c d e f "Daughter of Chinese human rights defender speaks out against Vietnam's silence following arrest". CTVNews. 2023-02-14. Retrieved 2023-02-14.
  5. ^ a b Chase, Steven; Fife, Robert (2022-01-18). "Chinese government expanding use of coercion to bring back citizens abroad, report says". The Globe and Mail. Retrieved 2023-02-14.
  6. ^ Holmes, Oliver (2015-11-17). "UN condemns Thai repatriation of Chinese dissidents". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2023-02-14.