Yang Tongyan

Yang, a Chinese writer and democracy activist, passed away on November 7, 2017, after being released on medical parole due to an aggressive brain cancer diagnosis. Previously persecuted for his role in the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests, Yang spent over two decades in prison for “counter-revolutionary activity,” serving sentences from 1990-2000 and again from 2005-2017. His health worsened due to inadequate medical care during his imprisonment.