The daughter of a missing Chinese human rights defender is pleading with the governments of Vietnam and China to reveal her father’s whereabouts and allow him to travel to Canada. Dong Guangping, an activist who has previously spoken out against China’s efforts to erase the bloody aftermath of the 1989 Tiananmen Square student demonstration, has “disappeared,” according to his daughter. Dong, a 64-year-old activist, was arrested on August 24 in the Vietnamese capital of Hanoi, where he had fled after being released from prison in China. His daughter, Kathryn Dong, is a student at the University of Toronto and became a Canadian citizen last summer. The 22-year-old student has not heard from her father for more than 80 days and fears he has been handed over to Chinese authorities. “He didn’t want me to live in a country without human rights … He loves his family and is a courageous survivor,” Catherine said Thursday at a news conference in Ottawa. “I want to hold on to hope, but I fear the worst.” Catherine Dong listens to a question from a reporter as she attends a press conference for the release of her father Dong Guangping, on Parliament Hill, Thursday, Nov. 17, 2022, in Ottawa. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld She was joined at the event by representatives of the Toronto Association for Democracy in China and the Federation for a Democratic China, as well as Alex Neve, former secretary general of Amnesty International Canada. The union for democracy says Dong Guangping has been granted asylum in Canada, but Ottawa has been unable to persuade Vietnamese officials to allow him to leave the country. Dong was in hiding in Vietnam for 31 months while trying to reach freedom. According to Neve, the family was informed that Dong’s case was raised by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Joly at recent international meetings with Southeast Asian leaders in Cambodia and the G20 summit in Indonesia. In a statement to CTV News, Global Affairs Canada says it is “deeply concerned for the safety and well-being of Mr. Dong and has raised our concerns at the highest levels. Officials are working to determine his whereabouts, including through diplomatic engagements with both Vietnam and China.” The tension between China and Canada played out in front of the cameras during an interaction between the premier and Premier Xi Jinping, when the Chinese leader criticized Trudeau for allegedly “leaking” information about their discussions.

HELD FOR DIFFERENCE

Dong’s supporters say he was fired from his job as a police officer in China in 1999 for signing a public letter on the anniversary of the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests.
He was later jailed for three years on charges of “incitement to subvert state authority”.
“Dong Guangping, like other courageous activists in China, refused to allow themselves to be silenced around Tiananmen.  The Chinese government brutally suppresses any attempts, including those by relatives of slain students to hold memorial services for their deaths — let alone more vigorous campaigns that insist the truth be told,” said Neve, who is now a senior fellow at the University of Ottawa.
Dong Guangping, an activist who has previously spoken out against China’s efforts to erase the bloody aftermath of the 1989 Tiananmen Square student demonstration, has “disappeared,” according to his daughter.

THREE ESCAPE ATTEMPTS

Dong fled to Thailand in 2015 with his wife and daughter, who resettled in Canada as refugees, but could not get out.  Despite being designated as a refugee by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Thailand sent Dong back to China where he was imprisoned for another three and a half years.
In 2019, Dong tried to escape again by swimming from China’s east coast to an island under Taiwanese control.
His daughter, Catherine, says her father swam for 12 hours before he “couldn’t take it anymore” and was rescued by a Chinese fishing trawler.
In January 2020, the human rights activist fled for the third time and successfully crossed the border into North Vietnam.  Kathryn says that while in hiding in Hanoi, her father was moved from one safe house to another while the Canadian government worked behind the scenes to secure him travel documents.
The Dong family was initially asked by Global Affairs Canada to remain silent to allow diplomats to negotiate his release.  Despite the delicate balancing act, Neve said the family made the decision to speak publicly after it became clear that Canadian officials had not heard from Dong for weeks.
“Every hour, every day and every week that goes by without knowing where he is, without knowing anything about his fate really means that the danger he faces will deepen.  Silence won’t help,” Niv said.
It is unknown how many human rights activists with Canadian ties are imprisoned in China, but Dong’s detention parallels the case of Uyghur-Canadian Huseyin Celil.
While he was on an overseas trip visiting his wife’s family in Uzbekistan in March 2006, China asked the Uzbek government to arrest Celil and extradite him.  Selil has been in prison for more than 16 years.
Fearing a similar fate for her father, Catherine Dong and her supporters delivered personal letters of appeal Thursday to the Chinese and Vietnamese embassies in Ottawa.
She is asking both governments to allow Canadian officials to visit her father immediately and to let him come to Canada without further delay.
With files from The Canadian Press