Yang Haipeng, Reporter on Rule of Law

• Author: China Law Digest compiled news from Southern Metropolitan Weekly and Qilu Evening News

Yang Haipeng, age 44, graduated from the Northwestern University of Politics and Law, had previously served as a reporter on rule of law for Southern Weekend, a reporter for Caijin Magazine, as well as theDirector of China East News Center of the Caijin Magazine.

Yang, who has 10-year experience in reporting on the Chinese rule of law, was viewed by his fellow journalists as “knowing the way”, “having profound life experience”, and “having fought numerous battles”. 3 Presidents at various Intermediate People’s Court and tens of judges have been forced to resign due to his reports. This time, however, the subject of Yang Haipeng’s report is his wife, Shanghai landscape architect Mei Xiaoyang. Mei Xiaoyang was detained on July 13, 2010 for “distributing state-owned assets amongst private individuals”. On May 24, 2011, Yang started a campaign “to save his wife through Weibo.” However, on October 20, Shanghai’s Minhang District Court found that Mei had received bribe of RMB 70,000, and sentenced her to 4-year imprisonment. Yang Haipeng’s demonstrated efforts to protect his wife have led countless people to exclaim that “if one is to get married, one should marry someone like Yang Haipeng”. Yet, at the same time, some others also criticized Yang Haipeng, saying that “Yang’s persistence in reporting on the rule of law has caused the imprisonment of his wife” and that “Yang has sacrificed his wife’s safety for his own honor.”

Yang, who has worked in the Xuhui District Court for 4 years, undoubtedly knows the necessity of compromising with the existing legal system. Before launching the campaign to “save his wife through Weibo”, Yang and his wife’s lawyer had made every attempt to “settle” the case with the authorities, hoping that the authorities will agree to a sentence of probation...