Yang Hengjun

Who is Yang Hengjun?

Yang Hengjun is an Australian novelist, born in Hubei Province, central China in 1965. After graduating from Fudan University in 1987, he worked in the Foreign Affairs Department in Beijing. From 1992 to 1997, he worked in Hong Kong as the manager of a mainland Chinese company. He then went to the U.S. as a senior fellow of the Atlantic Council.

His novel, Fatal Weakness, is the first in his spy trilogy using himself as a role model. It is the story of a U.S.-China double agent who ultimately works for neither side but instead serves his own personal agenda. It is only available on his blog and is written only in Chinese. There is no other translations available.

He is now an Australian citizen, and divides his time between Sydney and Guangzhou, China with his wife and two sons. He also holds PRC passport.

On 20 March 2011, it was alleged Yang disappeared from Guangzhou airport after phoning a friend to report that three men were following him. Commentators imagined that he has been detained as a result of government crackdown on activists, lawyers and bloggers following calls for a 'Jasmine' revolution in China since February 2011. He later contacted his family in Australia saying his disappearance was all a "misunderstanding" and "I've been sick, nothing else, and my phone battery was dead for two days so I could not contact my family. I'm very sorry about stirring up so much trouble in both countries."