JOHN YOON, PEI-LIN WU2026年6月29日About a month ago, the Chinese dissident Dong Guangping spent 36 hours at sea in an inflatable rubber boat with a sputtering engine, a peeling face and a dying phone before getting detained in South Korea.大约一个月前，中国异见人士董广平驾驶一艘充气橡皮艇，在海上漂流了36个小时后，最终在韩国被拘留。期间，皮划艇的引擎状况不断，他的面部晒伤脱皮，手机电量也耗尽了。But on Saturday, Mr. Dong, 68, told The New York Times that he had flown to Toronto, ending a treacherous and decade-long search for freedom. He also recounted details of his voyage across the Yellow Sea from China to South Korea for the first time.但周六，68岁的董广平对《纽约时报》表示，他已飞抵多伦多，为他长达十年、充满艰险的自由追寻之旅画上了句号。他还首次详细讲述了自己从中国穿越黄海前往韩国的航行经历。Mr. Dong, a critic of China’s ruling Communist Party, had been trying for more than 10 years to escape his country, where he was imprisoned several times and faced police surveillance and an exit ban. He was thrown out of Thailand and Vietnam, and picked up by mainland Chinese fishermen as he attempted to swim to Taiwan.作为中国执政的共产党的批评者，董广平十多年来一直试图逃离。在国内，他曾多次入狱，并长期受到警方监视并被限制出境。他曾被泰国和越南驱逐出境，也曾在试图游泳前往台湾时，被中国大陆渔民救起。Mr. Dong’s friends hoped that his recent escape across the Yellow Sea to South Korea would end differently — and they were right.董广平的朋友们曾希望他最近这次穿越黄海逃往韩国的行动会有不同的结局——事实证明，他们的希望成真了。His journey started before sunrise on May 24, when he set off from the coastal Chinese city of Weihai in a gray inflatable boat.他的旅程始于5月24日拂晓前，当时，他驾驶着一艘灰色充气艇从中国沿海城市威海出发。Three years earlier, another Chinese dissident had fled to South Korea by jet ski and was eventually permitted to leave after facing months of detention and legal limbo.三年前，也有一位中国异见人士驾驶摩托艇逃往韩国，在经历数月拘留和法律困境后，最终获准离境。That journey was an inspiration for Mr. Dong, though he said he aimed his boat for Japan because he was more familiar with it. His plan was to eventually fly to Canada, where his wife and daughter live.这启发了董广平，不过他说，他最初的目标是日本，因为自己对那里更熟悉。他的计划是最终飞往加拿大，他的妻子和女儿都生活在那里。He said he brought 42 gallons of gasoline, enough for a journey that he estimated would stretch nearly 440 miles, and a supply of cooked beef and crackers.他说，自己带了42加仑汽油，估计足以支撑600多公里，此外还带了一些熟牛肉和饼干。Mr. Dong, who had never operated a boat before, said he feared the engine would fail. To protect it, he kept his speed low, crawling along at just three miles per hour.董广平此前从未驾驶过船只，他说他担心引擎会出故障。为此，他始终保持低速行驶，每小时仅行驶约5公里。He used his smartphone to chart a course around the Korean Peninsula toward Japan, relying on the sun during the clear, scorching day to keep his bearings without draining his battery.他用智能手机规划了一条绕过朝鲜半岛前往日本的航线，当天天气晴朗、炙热，为了节省手机电量，他靠太阳辨别方向。In the evening, he recalled, he experienced a brief moment of peace at sunset, with the moon in the sky. “The scenery was truly, truly beautiful,” he said.他回忆说，傍晚，他在日落时分享受了片刻的宁静，月亮挂在天空中。“那景色真是、真是美极了，”他说。But the next day was unforgiving.但第二天的天气就变得毫不留情了。The weather shifted, turning the sky into a featureless grayish white. With the sun obscured by clouds, he lost his bearings.天气骤变，天空变成了一片单调的灰白色。云层遮住太阳后，他迷失了方向。周五，董广平在多伦多。在抵达加拿大后的首次采访中，他表示：“我很高兴，现在坐在这里，感觉就像回到了家。” Sheng Xue“The sea and sky are just a vast expanse of white, and you can’t tell which way is which,” he said.“海天白茫茫一片，根本分不清东南西北，”他说。Then his phone died, and his power bank was no help. He said the prospect of having no communications terrified him.随后，他的手机没电了，充电宝也不顶用。他说，失去通讯联系的可能性令他深感恐惧。The boat’s engine also began to betray him as seaweed and debris clogged its intake. It kept stalling whenever he tried to slow down. After 36 hours of grueling effort, he said, he had traveled only 124 miles.发动机也开始出现故障，海藻和杂物堵塞了进水口。每次他试图减速，发动机就会熄火。他说，经过36个小时的艰苦航行，船只行驶了约200公里。That’s when he picked up his speed and switched to his backup plan of heading toward South Korea. At certain points, he said, the only thing on his mind was survival.就在这时，他提高速度，启动备用方案，转而驶向韩国。他说，在某些时刻，他脑子里唯一的念头就是活下去。“You’re facing a life-or-death juncture,” he said. “If your decision-making is poor, then you’re dead. Everything else — thinking about family, friends, work, money, food and water — none of that was useful.”“你正面临生死抉择，”他说。“如果判断失误，你就死定了。其他一切——想一想家人、朋友、工作、钱、食物和水——都没用。”By the evening, he began seeing lights in the distance. He said he was relieved and steered toward them.到了傍晚，他开始看到远处的灯光。他说自己松了一口气，便朝那些灯光驶去。He said he then encountered a construction vessel. He cried for help, but he couldn’t be heard over noise from the ship’s propellers.他说，随后他遇到了一艘工程船。他大声呼救，但船的螺旋桨噪音太大，对方听不见。Moments later, he saw a fishing boat and called for help again as he watched a fisherman pull in his net.片刻之后，他又看见了一艘渔船，看到一名渔民正在收网，便再次呼救。“I thought I was going to die” from exhaustion, Mr. Dong said. “I was already in a terrible state.”“我当时觉得自己快要累死了，”董广平说。“我已经不行了。”A fisherman agreed to take him onto the boat and called the coast guard. South Korean coast guard officials then detained him and brought him back to land to face questioning.一名渔民同意让他上船，并打电话报警。韩国海岸警卫队官员随后将他拘留，并把他带上岸接受讯问。The exact legal process that led to Mr. Dong’s release was not immediately clear on Saturday.截至周六，董广平得以最终获释的具体法律程序尚不清楚。Kim Joo-kwang, the lawyer who represented him in South Korea, said on Saturday that he could not comment. A spokesman for the court that handled Mr. Dong’s case could not immediately be reached.在韩国代理其案件的律师金州光（音）周六表示，他无法置评。记者暂时无法联系到负责处理董广平案件的法院发言人。The Chinese authorities also did not respond to a request for comment on Saturday. A Chinese foreign ministry official said at the time of Mr. Dong’s arrival in South Korea that officials in China were not aware of his situation.中国官方周六同样没有回应置评请求。在董广平抵达韩国时，中国外交部一名官员曾表示，中方不了解他的情况。Mr. Dong said that the true turning point in his journey didn’t happen at sea, but in the clinical confines of a South Korean coast guard station where officials granted him access to a lawyer.董广平说，他旅程的真正转折点并不是发生在海上，而是在韩国海岸警卫队的医务室里。在那里，官员让他见了律师。“I knew then they would send me to Canada, because they were proceeding according to legal procedures,” he said, contrasting his experience there with his past captures in China, Thailand and Vietnam. “As long as it is a democratic country run by the rule of law, they would not send me back to China.”“那时我就知道，他们会把我送去加拿大，因为他们是按照法律程序来办事的，”他说。他将在韩国的经历与此前在中国、泰国和越南被抓时的遭遇作了对比：“只要是一个民主法治国家，他们就不会把我送回中国。”Days later, Coast Guard officials requested an arrest warrant for him. But a judge denied it, Mr. Dong said, and the authorities eventually allowed him to leave the country.几天后，海岸警卫队官员申请对他发出逮捕令。但董广平说，法官驳回了申请，当局最终允许他离境。Mr. Dong said he was housed in a refugee center in Incheon, a city near Seoul, with asylum seekers from Myanmar, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and other countries. He passed his evenings watching pickup soccer at the facility and later World Cup matches on television.董广平说，他被安置在首尔附近仁川的一个难民中心，与来自缅甸、乌兹别克斯坦、哈萨克斯坦和其他国家的寻求庇护者住在一起。晚上，他会在中心围观自发组织的足球赛，后来还在电视上看世界杯比赛。One day, he said, his lawyer secured a temporary exit permit that allowed him to visit a monument to the Korean War in Seoul. He said that he had been curious about the history of the conflict and wanted to compare South Korea’s portrayal of events with the propaganda he had been raised on in China.他说，有一天，律师为他申请到一张临时外出许可，让他得以前往首尔参观一处朝鲜战争纪念设施。他说，自己一直对这段历史感到好奇，想看看韩国对这段历史的叙述与自己从小在中国接受的宣传有何不同。Then the day finally arrived: He was flying to Toronto.终于，那一天来临：他登上了飞往多伦多的航班。“It felt like I was dreaming,” he said.“感觉就像在做梦一样，”他说。When he boarded the plane and settled into his aisle seat, he said, his mind was flooded with so many thoughts that his head ached. To stop thinking, he watched the science fiction movies “Avatar” and “Interstellar.”他说，登上飞机、在靠过道的座位坐下后，他脑海中思绪涌动，几乎头痛欲裂。为了停止胡思乱想，他先后看了科幻电影《阿凡达》和《星际穿越》。Zang Xihong, a fellow Chinese activist who goes by the pen name Sheng Xue and helped to coordinate his escape, was among those who greeted him at Toronto Pearson International Airport on Friday evening.帮助协调此次逃亡行动、笔名“盛雪”的中国活动人士臧锡红是周五傍晚在多伦多皮尔逊国际机场迎接他的人之一。“I’m very happy,” Mr. Dong said in a video interview from her home a few hours later. “Sitting here now, it feels like I’ve come home.”“我很高兴，”几个小时后，董广平在盛雪家中接受视频采访时说。“现在坐在这里，感觉就像回到了家。”The Canadian authorities did not immediately respond to a request for comment.加拿大官方暂未回应置评请求。Mr. Dong added that he hoped to keep working on a cause he began chasing in 1999, when he signed a letter about the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre in Beijing — the initial act that angered the Chinese authorities.董广平还表示，他希望继续投身于一项始于1999年的事业——那一年，他在一封有关1989年北京天安门广场事件的联署信上签名，正是这一举动让他第一次触怒了中国当局。“It is necessary to achieve constitutional democracy in China,” he said. “I treat this as what I need to do for the rest of my life.”“在中国实现宪政民主是必要的，”他表示。“我将把此作为余生的事业。”John Yoon是时报驻首尔记者，报道突发新闻和热门新闻。Pei-Lin Wu是《纽约时报》记者/研究员，报道台湾和中国新闻。翻译：纽约时报中文网点击查看本文英文版。