(California, USA – January 4, 2023) The U.S. State Department took urgent action to facilitate the arrival of Yang Hai, a student leader in the 1989 Tiananmen Democracy Movement, to the United States. He has successfully landed in the U.S. on December 22, 2023 and reunited with his wife and daughter after more than 11 years of separation.
Since participating in the 1989 Tiananmen Democracy Movement, Yang Hai has persistently and tirelessly pursued his ideals for China’s democratic cause and progress. He has been under constant scrutiny by the Chinese government and has been imprisoned twice. His wife and daughter left China in 2012 and settled in the United States. The family endured more than 11 years of separation living away from each other.
Recently, Mr. Yang’s wife, Ms. Wang Jing urgently needed a liver transplant due to her illness, and her daughter insisted on donating her liver for her mother. Mr. Yang desperately hoped to be reunited with his wife and daughter. He flew and arrived in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia on December 8 and waited to be approved for a visa to travel to the United States.
With the urgent intervention of the U.S. State Department, Yang Hai’s immigration application was quickly approved. On the 22nd, he arrived in San Francisco, California, according to Rev. Dr. Bob Fu, founder of ChinaAid.
“After eleven and a half years of separation, we are finally reunited today, and at this moment, tears are streaming down my face. Wang Jing has been critically ill several times and was emaciated. I can’t bear to share a photo of us now,” Yang Hai said.
He expressed gratitude to those who made efforts and provided necessary assistance for his journey. “Thankful for the grace along the way — when I was in distress and despair in Malaysia, it was Pastor Bob Fu and other friends overseas who extended a precious and timely helping hand, allowing me to quickly head to the United States to make it in time for my wife’s upcoming liver transplant surgery,” he expressed.
“My dearest daughter will donate 57% of her liver to save her mother,” Yang Hai said.
“Thanks be to God for His protection. Brother Yang Hai, a prisoner of conscience and one of the student leaders of the Tiananmen protests, has finally arrived at the San Francisco Airport. Which is a wonderful Christmas gift for Sister Wang Jing and their daughter Yang Qianyi (Emma),” Pastor Bob Fu said. He expressed gratitude to the U.S. State Department for helping expedite Yang Hai’s immigration visa.
Yang Hai and his wife, Wang Jing, are of the same age, both having participated in the democracy movement in 1989 that shook the world. Yang Hai was imprisoned as a result. Twenty-nine years ago, despite her mother’s opposition, Wang Jing married Yang Hai, a student of the Ocean University of Qingdao, who had been sentenced for the crime of “counter-revolutionary propaganda and incitement” and was imprisoned at the time. “I felt like they were in prison for us,” Wang Jing once said.
In 2012, Wang Jing settled in Washington, D.C., with her daughter, Yang Qianyi, and the daughters of two other student activists, Wang Zhiyi and Chen Qiao. Under Wang Jing’s guardianship, they were all accepted into American universities.
