SEOUL, South Korea (AFP) — A Chinese dissident who has long been a thorn in Beijing’s side has escaped to South Korea on a rubber boat, his lawyer confirmed on Wednesday, after repeated attempts to flee China.

Dong Guangping, a former policeman who was imprisoned for his activism, was found by South Korean authorities on Monday night drifting off the country’s west coast on a 3.3-meter rubber boat with a 9.9-horsepower engine, according to police. 

He was taken to shore for questioning on suspicion of violating immigration laws.

The man’s lawyer, Kim Joo-kwang, confirmed his identity to Agence France-Presse.

Dong, 68, is known for his opposition to the Chinese Communist Party and his advocacy for political reform and human rights. 

He was dismissed from his work as a policeman after signing a petition a decade after Beijing’s 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown, according to United States-based advocacy group Human Rights in China.

He later spent about three years in prison from 2001 for “inciting subversion of state power,” United Nations experts said, and was detained again in 2014 over Tiananmen-related activities.

Dong fled to Thailand with his family, who later resettled in Canada as refugees, but Thai authorities handed him over to Chinese police in 2015 despite his UN-recognized refugee status.

He was released from prison after completing his sentence in 2019. 

But faced with constant police surveillance, harassment and a lack of access to housing, work and financial resources, he decided to flee again in an attempt to reunite with his family, according to a UN report from 2022.