Renowned democratic activist and former Guizhou University professor Yang Shaopolitics was released from prison and returned home on February 6th. Yang Shaopolitics caused a sensation in 2017 when he publicly exposed the scandal of the Chinese Communist Party’s use of public funds to support the party. He was sentenced to 4 years and 6 months in prison on May 18, 2021, for his speech and was held in Xingyi Prison in Guizhou Province.
On February 6th, Rights website released the news that Yang Shaopolitics had returned home that day.
Born on October 12, 1969, in Bazhong City, Sichuan Province, Yang Shaopolitics resided in the Wenchuan District of Chengdu. He was a member of the China Agricultural Workers’ Party, held a Ph.D. in Economics from Southwestern University of Finance and Economics, and was a former teacher at Chongqing Technology and Business University. He served as a professor and graduate supervisor at the School of Economics of Guizhou University and was a well-known Chinese economist and democratic dissident.
Yang Shaopolitics began teaching at Guizhou University in 2006. Due to his frequent publication of politically sensitive and taboo political opinions, he was subjected to monitoring and suppression by the Guizhou authorities. On November 10, 2017, he published an article overseas exposing the CCP’s practice of “feeding the party with public funds”, revealing that the CCP occupies tax revenues and national income to provide for about 20 million full-time party workers and some non-party organization workers each year, with an estimated loss to society of about 20 trillion RMB. He warned that if the situation does not change, society will ultimately collapse.
On August 16, 2018, Yang Shaopolitics was formally dismissed by Guizhou University for expressing sensitive opinions. During the commemoration of the “June Fourth Incident” in 2019, he was summoned for more than 8 hours of violent interrogation by the Guizhou Provincial Politics and Law Commission, the Guizhou Provincial Cyberspace Administration, and several police officers for disclosing via WeChat group chat that the commander of the 38th Army, Xu Qinxian, claimed that between 3,000 to 5,000 students were killed in the June Fourth Incident. During the “ten-one” period in 2019, he was again confined by the Guizhou Provincial Politics and Law Commission for several days.
On May 18, 2021, Yang Shaopolitics was secretly taken away by the police in Huaxi District, Guiyang City, Guizhou Province. On June 10 of the same year, he was placed under residential surveillance on suspicion of “incitement to subvert state power” and was subsequently formally arrested. On August 31, 2023, he was sentenced to 4 years and 6 months in prison for inciting subversion of state power. He was transferred to Xingyi Prison in Guizhou Province in March 2024, where he served his sentence until his return home on February 6th of this year.