Yang Zili

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Yang Zili (Chinese: 杨子立; pinyin: Yáng Zǐlì) (born 1971), also known as Yang Zi (Chinese: 羊 子), is a Chinese freelance journalist and webmaster who was released in March 2009 after he was charged with "subversion of the state agency “ Was incarcerated in prison in the People's Republic of China for eight years .

biography

Yang was born in 1971 as the eldest son of a rural Muslim family in Daming County, Hebei Province . He received a bachelor's degree from Xi'an Jiaotong University and attended Beijing University from 1995 to 1998 . There he completed his master’s degree as a computer scientist . He later started his own software company.

Yang is also an amateur poet and published two well-known poems. The first Peasants - My Kinsmen was published in 1998 and the second The Ghost of Communism was published in 2001. He is married to Lu Kun.

Social activism

When he was a student at Peking University in early 1997, he co-founded the Current Affairs Society, a student organization that advocated the discussion of social issues in China, and which was banned by school authorities several months later.

In 1999, Yang and some of his close friends began meeting regularly and formed the New Youth Society to discuss social and political issues. Yang also published his writings on his website "Yang Zili's Garden of Ideas", which was originally set up at lib.126.com. After lib.126.com was taken offline, Yang posted its content on HumanRightsAction.org. He published articles on his website advocating political freedoms, reporting government corruption, criticizing crackdown on the Falun Gong spiritual movement, and disapproving of the economic hardship of farmers in China.

Imprisonment

On March 13, 2001, Yang was arrested by agents from the Ministry of State Security , along with Xu Wei , Jin Haike and Zhang Honghai, also members of the New Youth Society and known as the 4 Gentlemen of Beijing . On the same day, the police arrested Yang's wife, Lu Kun, and interrogated her husband for three days, then released. Yang was formally charged with "undermining state authority" on April 20th. Yang appeared before the Beijing Intermediate People's Court on September 28th, but was not sentenced to eight years in prison until May 28th, 2003. The case was challenged, but the verdict was upheld on November 10, 2003. According to Intelmessage's Rosenthal, one of the reasons that could have led to Yang's conviction was that he was known in intellectual circles for bypassing government firewalls and setting up other email accounts that could not be tracked. He also met openly with dissidents, such as Ding Zilin , who has been under constant surveillance since criticizing the Tian'anmen massacre , and members of the Chinese Democratic Party .

In February 2007, Yang's Ms. Lu Kun requested a review of his trial over new evidence that four reports from Li Yuzhou, a former State Security Bureau agent, had been modified by his staff and superiors to justify Yang's arrest. However, the Beijing Intermediate People's Court denied her request. Lu then submitted a new application to the Supreme People's Court of the People's Republic of China and waited for its decision, which never came. Yang was released in March 2009 with Zhang Honghei; his wife had already immigrated to the United States at the time.

After his release, Yang joined the Transition Institute , a non-governmental organization in China that, unlike other NGOs, focuses on research as a think tank . There he studied social issues in China and proved to be an imaginative author, especially on issues of equal training and the rights of migrant workers . In October 2014, Huang Kaiping and He Zhengjun, head of the Transition Institute, were arrested. Yang fled to Beijing. Its whereabouts are unknown.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b c d e f Andrew Jacobs, Two Chinese Dissidents Freed After Years in Prison , The New York Times, March 13, 2009, accessed November 18, 2016
  2. ^ A b c d Stacy Mosher, Four Internet Activists Imprisoned for Subversion ( Memento April 29, 2009 in the Internet Archive ), International Media Work / Press Releases and Statements, Human Rights in China, May 28, 2003, accessed November 18 2016
  3. ^ A b c d Elisabeth Rosenthal, China Detains and Isolates Liberal Computer Wiz ( Memento July 9, 2002 in the Internet Archive ), New York Times, April 21, 2001, web.archive.org, accessed November 18, 2016
  4. ↑ Philip P. Pan, A Study Group Is Crushed in China's Grip; Beliefs Are Tested in Saga Of Sacrifice and Betrayal ( December 2, 2016 memento on the Internet Archive ), The Washington Post, p.A01, April 23, 2004, accessed November 18, 2016
  5. ↑ Yang Zili's Garden of Ideas , Human Rights in China, March 5, 2001, accessed November 18, 2016
  6. ↑ Xiao Shu, Yang Zili and the Paranoid Regime , The Washington Post, accessed November 25, 2016
personal data
SURNAME Yang Zili
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Yang Zi
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Chinese journalist
DATE OF BIRTH 1971
PLACE OF BIRTH Daming , Hebei Province