YANG Zili
Name in Chinese: 杨子立
Sentence: 8 years
Writer and computer engineer, arrested March 13, 2001 along with Xu Wei, Jin Haike, and Zhang Honghai after participating in the New Youth Study Group (新青年学会), an informal gathering of individuals concerned with political and economic inequalities, government corruption and political reform, who used the internet to circulate relevant articles. Yang was finally sentenced on May 28, 2003 to eight years in prison on charges of subversion. He is currently suffering from numerous ailments but has yet to receive any medical treatment.
In an article written for the Washington Post in 2004, Philip P. Pan, describes Yang as a “slim, outgoing computer whiz with a youthful, angular face”. A graduate of China’s prestigious Beijing University with a degree in mechanics, Yang is the “eldest son of farmers so poor they gave his brothers up for adoption”. Yang had a special interest in rural poverty. He founded a popular website in 1998, “Yangzi’s Home of Ideas”, where he published “forceful essays condemning communism and arguing for democratic freedom”.
The New Youth Study Group was a circle of friends, “who shared his concern about those left behind by the booming economy. They were college kids and recent graduates, people like himself who had come to Beijing from the provinces for an education and who enjoyed arguing about what could be done to change China and help its less fortunate.”
A Study Group is Crushed in China's Grip
Read Philip P. Pan’s harrowing account of how the New Youth Study Group was infiltrated and broken up with the arrest of Yang Zili and his colleagues.
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Sydney Morning Herald: Freedom Relay
