"In every heart, there is goodness, and there is knowledge of right and wrong. That is where our hope comes from."
-Yang Jianli
Title & Position
President, Initiatives for China (Citizen Power for China)
Fellow, Harvard University
Advisor, UN Watch
Advisor, Right to Nonviolence
Advisor, Freedom Now
Advisor, Freedom Rights Project
Member, Program Council of Forum2000
Trustee, Milton S. Eisenhower Foundation
Ph.D. Mathematics (U.C. Berkeley)
Ph.D. Political Economics (Harvard)
Imprisonment in China
In 2002, after completing his Doctorate in Political Economy at Harvard, Dr. Yang returned to China to help the labor movement with non-violent struggle strategies. 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. [read more]
Founding IFC/CPFC
Immediately following his return to the U.S. Dr. Yang formed Initiatives for China / Citizen Power for China 公民力量, a pro democracy movement committed to a peaceful transition to democracy in China. He firmly believes that continued world democracies’ 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.