Mr. Yang, one of China’s highly successful entrepreneurs now living in exile, recounted how he changed his thinking from being a staunch supporter of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to resolutely opposing its existence.
Mr. Yang lives in Toronto, Canada. Before his exile, he was the chairman of a large and prosperous company in a prefecture-level city in a southern China province with more than 20 branches and hundreds of employees.
Award-winning entrepreneur gets run over by the CCP extortion machine
After more than 20 years of hard work in business, Mr. Yang became an award-winning entrepreneur in his local province. He had accumulated hundreds of millions of Renminbi (RMB) worth of assets, but he lost everything overnight and awakened to the iron fist of communism.
In 2014, Mr. Yang’s company bought a piece of land in his city center through a local government land tender, and he was planning to build commercial offices and a residential building complex on it. He did not commence construction immediately.
In 2017, the municipal government wanted to take back the land from him to pocket all the added value because of the soaring land prices. Consequently, the plot dimensions for the proposed project were reduced by nearly half, and the construction area was also reduced considerably, resulting in penalty losses of hundreds of millions of RMB on the project. Mr. Yang had repeatedly failed in his negotiations with the government.
Fabricated trumped-up charges
Mr. Yang told a reporter: “To achieve its goals, the government fabricated trumped-up charges against me and concocted bogus evidence. The authorities even confiscated all my property, froze the property and assets of my family and relatives, arrested my brother, and threatened to kidnap my loved ones.”
Ms. Yin, Mr. Yang’s cousin, said that in April 2023, she was present at the court session of Mr. Yang’s eldest brother, the legal representative of Mr. Yang’s real estate development company. Along with him were three drivers: the general manager of the real estate development company, the director general of the group company, and the general manager of the industrialization department and finance.
At that time, the defendant’s lawyer defended and silenced everyone. Still, the local court finally sentenced Mr. Yang’s eldest brother to six years and eight months imprisonment on trumped-up charges. Others were sentenced to from 14 months to four years on the same trumped-up charges.
Ms. Yin said that after the verdict, Mr. Yang’s eldest brother immediately appealed. On the day the appeal was filed, the court president threatened his eldest brother that if he appealed, the sentence would be increased to more than 10 years so that no one would appeal the case.
In China, the law is a blank piece of paper
“In China, the law is like child’s play, a cut scene. It’s terrifying!” she said.
To this day, Mr. Yang’s eldest brother is in a provincial prison. When his family visited him, he told them that there was no bed in the cell, and he could only sleep on the floor. He also told his family that he gets up at 5 a.m. every day, does garment processing until 10 p.m., with only a meal break for half an hour, and he has to report when going to the toilet.
The family feared that he would not be able to bear it, but he did not dare to protest. The prison told his family that he would suffer less if he looked for some orders outside.
The authorities also went to the house of Mr. Yang’s father once every three days to harass and scare him. In his 80s, the father suffered a stroke and is now lonely with one son in prison and one in exile. They threatened the father to force Mr. Yang to return and cooperate. They even said that it was useless for Mr. Yang to run anywhere. The strangest thing is that they even drew blood from the old man. “We do not understand why they drew blood from my father,” Mr. Yang said.
A totalitarian regime can’t handle the truth
Mr. Yang believes that there are deeper reasons behind the incident.
First, after he bought the land, its value quickly appreciated and multiplied several times in just a few years. Mr. Yang said: “The local government wants to take back the land for its development and to make a profit, and to accumulate greater wealth for its interest groups.”
Secondly, Mr. Yang later went to the inspection team of the provincial Party committee to file a complaint, and the inspection team then referred back to the local municipal government for a resolution. This angered the municipal government, and they tried all means to punish Mr. Yang.
See Part 2 here.
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