Yang Bin is a Patriot

Yang Bin was born in Nanjing city of Jiangsu Province in China on Feb 11, 1963. His father had worked in a military industrial factory and died of a disease. His mother remarried and left the hometown. His grandma and he lived together relying on each other only. He finished his studies in primary school, high school and university under the care of the Communist Party and the Government, receiving patriotic education. He had also stayed in the army and military academy. Therefore, he often said, “I grew up by drinking water from the Yangtze River, and I was the son of the Chinese people.”
Ge Yalian, who had been the class teacher of Yang Bin in Jinling Junior High School of Nanjing, arrived in Beijing on a business trip in the autumn of 2007. I visited her. After Yang Bin was sentenced, she once went to Shenyang prison to visit her student. She told me, “During the Spring Festival of 2004, I went to Shenyang to see him. There was heavy snow on that day. I grew up in the south and had never seen such heavy snow before. It was very cold. Yang Bin was very glad to see his teacher, just like a child seeing his father or mother. I was happy to see him as well. He lost his parents when he was very small, and he lived only with his grandmother. Yang Bin was a diligent child at school. I was very concerned about his development. He was willing to exchange his ideas with me. I came to the prison to visit him and chat with him. I asked him, ‘You are my student, and I do not want you to become a criminal. I hope you can tell me the truth. Why did the court sentence you for so many years?’ He said, ‘please believe me, Ms. Ge, I am really not guilty.’ I said, ‘You have such a big company. Was it because that your staff had done something against the law and as a result, you as his supervisor needed to be responsible for that?’ He said, ‘my staff did do something wrong, but nothing major. As for the six charges on me, the lawyers had stated clearly that theses were not supported by facts. Ms. Ge, I’m really sentenced wrongfully.’”
After being a school teacher for some time, Ms. Ge Yalian later on went on studies in the Politics and Law College of the East China University, and in the Law School of Nanjing University. She became a judge in Nanjing Procuratorate, deputy director of the Legal Policy Research Office, secretary general of the Criminal Law and Criminal Procedure Legal Research Association of Nanjing Law Society, prosecutor of Anti-Corruption Bureau and Office of Preventing Job-related Crimes. She was a legal worker with profound understanding of China’s laws.
She said to Yang Bin, “These 18 years, according to our national laws, you must spend at least more than half of the sentence to apply for change or reduction of sentence. What are you going to do?”
Yang Bin said, “I believe that the China Government does not want to give up the friendship between China and North Korea. On this matter, they might have viewed me as an ordinary businessman, without understanding that this move has hurt the feelings of the people in North Korea. The mother punished me wrongfully. It doesn’t matter for the child to suffer a little grievance.”
Ms. Ge said to me, “Yang Bin had no complaint or impulse. I looked at him, tears running down my face. He saw my tears and comforted me, ‘Teacher, I was in jail for the peace of the Northeast Asia. It is worthwhile.’”
I recalled that in the summer of 2002, one day, late at night, Yang Bin invited me to his villa to chat. He asked me, “Mr. Guan, if Sinuiju SAR is established successfully, is that a contribution to the peace of Northeast Asia?”
I said, “Of course!”
Yang Bin said, “If Sinuiju SAR can be established successfully, North Korea has promised to expand that region, so that North Korea can be more open to the outside world. It can also intensify its internal reform and opening-up. Then the North Korean people will have a better life just as the Chinese people. Countries in Northeast Asia will then compete with one another on the development of their economy. Who will start a war anymore? Peaceful coexistence is the best.”
During Yang Bin’s participation in the drafting of the Basic Law of Sinuiju, he first proposed that no activities initiated by the political organizations of foreign countries were allowed in Sinuiju. Activities by Falun Gong Cult were also not allowed. Its purpose was to restrict some people or organizations from carrying out activities against China in Sinuiju.
Yang Bin’s approach was correct. His decision served to take care of not only the “mother” of China, but also the “mother-in-law” of North Korea. This kind of thinking and choice was the result of his belief in patriotism and internationalism.
Readers may ask, “You think that Yang Bin case is unjust and Yang Bin is a patriot and internationalist. So why did the court of Liaoning Province sentence him 18 years in the jail? You also said that you believed that China’s legal system is fair, open and transparent.” I can only answer that although Yang Bin’s event involved many aspects and therefore was quite complicated, but his story does not end here. Yang Bin’s biography does not end here. Everything is yet to be judged later.
I still believe that the Communist Party of China follows the spirit of “fact-finding”. Everything will return to its original appearance in history.