Xiaokai Yang

He died on 7 July 2004, survived by his wife, Xiaojuan; and three children, Xiaoxi, James, and Edward. His eventful life is described in his memoir, Captive Spirits: Prisoners of the Cultural Revolution.

He collaborated with some of the world's leading economists, including Yew-Kwang Ng and Jeffrey Sachs, the latter of whom stated that "Yang is one of the world's most penetrating and exacting economic theorists, and one of the most creative minds in the economics profession". In 2002, Nobel Prize Winner Professor James M. Buchanan said that: "In my view, the most important and exciting research in economics in the world is done at Monash, and it is done by Xiaokai Yang."

Yang was diagnosed with lung cancer in September 2001. Doctors predicted that it would kill him soon, but he lived more years than initially expected. In 2002, Yang converted to Christianity and made it public, becoming a member of the Anglican Church. Six months later, he was baptized and wrote a second testimony about his new belief in The Bible.

Following his study at Princeton, Yang accepted a postdoctoral fellowship at Yale University. In 1988, he moved to Australia and took up a position as lecturer at Monash University. He quickly gained widespread international attention, publishing numerous English-language articles and books. He was made senior lecturer in 1989, reader in 1993, and was awarded a personal chair in Economics in 2000. In 1993, he was elected fellow of the Australian Academy of Social Sciences. He was twice nominated for the Nobel Prize in Economics (2002 and 2003).

Yang contended that the essential conflict in China was between the new "red capitalist class", consisting of CCP cadres and their families, and the masses of the Chinese people. This was a shocking and daring deviation from the orthodox Maoist view that conflict in China was essentially between Mao and his enemies. Yang's essay was read by hundreds of thousands of Chinese during the Cultural Revolution. It could not be read openly, and was passed secretly between trusted friends, provoking lively debate across China. So great was his influence that some members of the 1980s Democracy Movement in China viewed Yang Xiaokai as "the forerunner of the Thinking Generation".

Xiaokai Yang (born as Yang Xiguang; Simplified Chinese: 杨小凯; 6 October 1948 – 7 July 2004) was a Chinese-Australian economist. He was one of the world's pre-eminent theorists in economic analysis, and an influential campaigner for democracy in China.