Present classification: Deceased · Former political prisoner · Region: Mainland China
Yang Tongyan (杨同彦), who wrote under the pen name Yang Tianshui (杨天水), was a Chinese writer and democracy activist from Jiangsu Province. Rights groups record that he spent 22 years in political prison across two sentences — a ten-year term tied to the 1989 pro-democracy movement, and a twelve-year term imposed in 2006 for essays published online. He died on November 7, 2017, while on medical parole, less than three months after brain surgery.
Born April 12, 1961, in Siyang County, Jiangsu, Yang graduated in history from Beijing Normal University in 1982. He worked as a teacher and an office worker, and later as a freelance writer. His poems, essays, novels, short stories, and memos — many written in prison — were published online under the name Yang Tianshui on Boxun and the Epoch Times. He was a member of the Independent Chinese PEN Center, and an honorary member of PEN America, PEN Canada, and Italian PEN.
The first sentence (1990–2000)
PEN America, Amnesty International, and the Committee to Protect Journalists record that Yang was sentenced in 1990 to ten years’ imprisonment on “counter-revolution” charges tied to the 1989 pro-democracy movement. No located source names a specific 1989 organization, action, or location for him. He served the full term and was released in 2000.
Detention, trial, and the second sentence (2004–2017)
Yang was held incommunicado from December 24, 2004, to January 25, 2005, on suspicion of subversion, and released on guarantor for pending trial. On December 23, 2005, he was detained again in Nanjing, and in January 2006 formally charged with “subversion of state power.”
On May 16, 2006, after a three-hour trial closed to the public, the Zhenjiang Intermediate People’s Court sentenced him to twelve years’ imprisonment plus four years’ deprivation of political rights. According to the case record reported by PEN America, the conviction rested on anti-government articles published on the internet, organizing a branch of the China Democracy Party, participating in the “Velvet Action” online-election movement, and a prosecution allegation of transferring funds from overseas — an allegation his defense lawyer, Li Jianqiang (李建强), denied. He served the sentence in Nanjing Prison, where rights groups documented chronic illness and where applications for medical parole were denied in 2010 and 2012.
Award and final illness
In 2008, while Yang was in prison, PEN America named him the recipient of the PEN/Barbara Goldsmith Freedom to Write Award, honoring writers persecuted for defending freedom of expression.
In August 2017, family members were informed that Yang had an aggressive brain tumor. He was granted medical parole on August 16, underwent brain surgery on August 23 in Shanghai, and died on November 7, 2017, at age 56. No clinical cause of death beyond the reported brain tumor is publicly documented.
Sources and evidence
- PEN America — Yang Tongyan case page
- Amnesty International — death statement, November 2017
- PEN America — death statement, November 8, 2017
- CHRD — prisoner profile
- Committee to Protect Journalists — case page
- PEN America — 2008 Freedom to Write Award
- PEN International via IFEX — obituary
- CECC — trial and sentencing analysis
Media Profile & Archive: Yang Tongyan / 杨同彦 (Yang Tianshui / 杨天水) — Media Profile & Archive.