[3] Dong worked as marketing director of Chianti Foods and then with the nonprofit Canada Shanghai Business Association.

Since making the switch to politics, he spent nine years at Queen's Park serving as Ontario Liberal cabinet minister Gerry Phillips's MPP liaison, and most recently as a senior adviser of community outreach under then Citizenship and Immigration Minister Michael Coteau.

[9] Dong noted the hardship out of service elevators posed to the elderly, and to parents whose children required strollers.

[10] In the 2018 provincial election, Dong was defeated by New Democratic candidate Chris Glover in the redistributed riding of Spadina—Fort York.

[11] After the number of wards in the city was reduced from 47 to 25, Dong did not refile his candidacy by the September 21, 2018, deadline and was thus deemed to have withdrawn.

[12] On July 4, 2019, Dong confirmed his candidacy for the federal Liberal nomination in Don Valley North following the retirement of incumbent MP Geng Tan.

[19][20] In March 2023, he said that he was yet to be contacted by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, Elections Canada, or CSIS concerning the allegations, and that he wanted the truth to come out.

[28] Following his review, Special Rapporteur David Johnston said that allegations that Dong had told Chinese officials to extend the detention of Kovrig and Spavor were false.

[31] In September 2023, following the announcement of a public inquiry into foreign election interference, LeBlanc said that he had not had an opportunity to conduct an internal review of Dong's situation.

[35] In December 2023, Chinese dissident and Uyghur rights groups questioned their safety to testify at a planned public inquiry on foreign interference with Dong present.

[36] In April 2024, Dong testified in a federal inquiry that international students from China were bused in to vote for him in a Liberal Party election.