Top Chinese Scientist Yang Xiaoming, who led the development of China’s first COVID-19 inactivated vaccine, has been dismissed from his position. Analysts believe Yang’s downfall is likely related to the increasing reports of adverse reactions to the Sinopharm vaccine, with the Chinese authorities trying to shift blame by making Yang a scapegoat.
Yang Xiaoming was stripped of his position as a National People’s Congress delegate on March 29 for “suspected serious violations of discipline and law,” as announced by the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress on April 26.
Public records show that Yang Xiaoming, born in February 1962, had been engaged in research, development, production, and management of biological products. He had held positions such as Director of the National Vaccine Engineering Technology Research Center of the Chinese Communist Party, Chief Scientist of the National “863” Program Vaccine Project, and Chairman of China Biotech.
Yang Xiaoming was a prominent figure in China’s vaccine industry, having joined China Biotech Wuhan under the Sinopharm Group in 2002 as Deputy Director in charge of scientific research. He led various vaccine research projects during his tenure, including major projects and subjects under the National “863” Program.
In 2010, Yang Xiaoming moved to Beijing from Wuhan, where he served as President and Chairman of China Biotech Co., Ltd., a subsidiary of the Sinopharm Group. He also held positions such as Chief Engineer and Director of Industrial Development and Research Management Department within the Sinopharm Group.
Yang Xiaoming had also served as Chairman of TianTan Biotech, a company listed on the A-share market and one of the leading blood product manufacturers in China.
Yang Xiaoming gained public recognition in China for leading a team in developing and obtaining approval for China’s first inactivated COVID-19 vaccine during the pandemic. The inactivated vaccine from China Biotech Beijing was approved for market launch on December 30, 2020, making it the first domestically approved COVID-19 vaccine in China.
In a public appearance in late April 2021, Yang Xiaoming boasted, “China developed the COVID-19 inactivated vaccine in just 98 days.” He also mentioned in an interview with mainland media that China Biotech’s COVID-19 vaccine went from project approval to research, development, and market launch in a total of over 330 days, an unprecedented achievement from a scientific standpoint.
According to international standards, the typical timeline for developing and launching a vaccine is over 10 years, with the fastest scenarios taking around 5 to 6 years.
Jingyuan Tang, a political analyst based in the U.S., suggests that Yang Xiaoming’s downfall may be related to the concentrated outbreak of adverse reactions to the Sinopharm vaccine.
On April 28, Jingyuan Tang commented to journalists that following the introduction of domestic COVID-19 vaccines in China, citizens were mandated to receive two to three doses, leading to a continuous rise in reports of post-vaccination complications. If adverse reactions reach a critical point, the Chinese authorities might struggle to keep this information concealed.
Tang mentioned, “Hence, it is likely that the Chinese Communist Party is using this situation to scapegoat Yang Xiaoming, making him responsible. In the event of a widespread outbreak of vaccine side effects, many will demand accountability and compensation. The CCP could easily shift all blame onto Yang Xiaoming, claiming that the vaccines he developed were faulty, thus absolving themselves of responsibility and reducing their own pressures.”
Jianping Lai, a former lawyer in Beijing and chairman of the Canadian Alliance, finds it hard to believe that a top scientist like Yang Xiaoming was implicated.
Lai expressed to reporters that the Communist Party of China prioritizes political loyalty and obedience for maintaining its authoritarian regime, often overlooking officials’ corruption issues. He suggests that Yang Xiaoming’s downfall likely involves sensitive, special, and political matters, such as disloyalty to the party, potential leaks of classified information, or holding excessive non-disclosable secrets during the COVID-19 vaccine development and epidemic control processes, viewed as threats by the authorities, leading to his purge.
After the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, two inactivated vaccines were produced by the Sinopharm Group in China, developed at the biopharmaceutical research institutes in Beijing and Wuhan. Sinopharm’s vaccines were among the earliest domestically approved and most widely administered vaccines in China, as well as globally.
However, the efficacy and safety of domestically-produced Chinese vaccines have been widely questioned, both domestically and internationally. Many individuals have complained on social media about various post-vaccination side effects, including measles, leukemia, heart diseases, and a considerable number of sudden deaths allegedly related to vaccination.
In January this year, a resident of Nantong City in Jiangsu Province, named Jiang (alias), informed reporters that over a dozen of his relatives died within a year after receiving the vaccine. They developed various illnesses ranging from diabetes, leukemia, spinal diseases, anemia, among others.
On December 3, 2023, 40-year-old Professor Yongcai Qiu from South China University of Technology passed away at the First Affiliated Hospital of Guangzhou with potential post-vaccination complications. Before his death, Qiu had undergone hematopoietic stem cell transplantation. He left a message on his WeChat Moments indicating a high likelihood of vaccine side effects. However, the content was swiftly deleted.
In early June 2022, parents of over a thousand children in China released an open letter accusing vaccines produced by companies like Sinovac Biotech and Beijing Bio of causing type 1 diabetes in their children post-vaccination. These children now require lifelong insulin injections, causing immense distress to their families.
In May 2022, leukemia patients from over thirty provinces and autonomous regions in China sent two open letters alleging that they developed leukemia after receiving the domestically-produced COVID-19 vaccine. They faced suppression during appeals and were advised against seeking media assistance or legal representation, with vaccines from Sinovac being the primary culprit, along with Beijing Bio, Wuhan Bio, Zhifei Bio, and Changchun Bio.
Amid mounting public pressure, the Chinese authorities have defended the vaccines by claiming that the current party and state leaders have been vaccinated with domestically-produced vaccines. However, this assertion has faced widespread doubt and backlash. The denial of possible associations between COVID-19 vaccinations and leukemia or diabetes has been staunchly upheld by the Chinese officials.
(Contributed by reporter Ningxin)