Yang Jianli

From Party Official to Mathematician to a Student of Democracy

Yang Jianli was born in Shandong Province in northern China and graduated from Beijing Normal University at the age of 20. A rising star in the Chinese Communist Party, Jianli quickly became disenchanted by the corruption and duplicity he witnessed in the communist system. He left China to pursue a career in Mathematics at U.C. Berkeley. In 1989, at the age of 26, his fellow graduate students at Berkeley elected him to go to Beijing in support of their counterparts in China who were demonstrating for democracy in Tiananmen Square. He arrived in time to witness the massacre of thousands by the guns and tanks of the Chinese army. This event changed young Jianli’s future. He narrowly escaped capture and returned to the United States himself to studying democracy. 

From Scholar to Democracy Activist

In 2002, after completing his Doctorate in Political Economy at Harvard, Dr. Yang returned to study the growing labor unrest in northern China. He was arrested and sentenced to five years imprisonment for “spying”. Following an international outcry for his release, including a UN Resolution and a unanimous vote of both houses of the United States Congress, Dr. Yang was freed in April of 2007. Immediately following his return to the U.S. Dr. Yang formed Initiatives for China , a pro democracy movement committed to a peaceful transition to democracy in China. He firmly believes that continued U.S. leadership in holding China accountable for respecting the human and political rights of its citizens is a critical component for world stability and for the peaceful transition to a democratic society in China.

From Activist to Democracy Architect

A recipient of numerous awards, Dr. Yang is widely recognized as a leading architect for democracy in China. He established the Foundation for China in the 21^st Century and is the co-author of a constitution for a democratic China. Dr. Yang created the Interethnic/Interfaith Leadership Conferences, last series of which was held at Harvard in November, 2008. He is also the founder of China E-Weekly magazine.

Dr. Yang holds a deep conviction that the path to democracy in China lies through the awakening of a unified Citizen Power (Gong Min Li Liang) among all the peoples under Chinese government rule. A few months after its formation, Initiatives for China launched a demonstration of Citizen Power by sponsoring a 500-mile walk by Dr. Yang Jianli from Boston to Washington D.C. to highlight the human rights situation in China and to call for continued American leadership in the struggle for peaceful democratic reform. The GongMin Walk received worldwide acclamation from leaders around the world, including His Holiness, the Dalai Lama and the Honorable Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives. Dr. Yang Jianli concluded the GongMin Walk by joining Speaker Pelosi at a large commemorative rally on Capitol Hill on June 4, 2008, the 19^th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square Massacre

Dr. Yang Jianli was elected by Chinese independent intellectuals one of top 100 Chinese Public Intellectuals of 2009 and recognized by Chinese Twitter users as one of 50 Most Respected Chinese Citizens of 2009.