Father of Covid-19 Vaccine Yang Xiaoming Reportedly Sentenced to Death, Official Media Silent

In a recent development regarding Yang Xiaoming, the former chairman of China Biotech and known as the “Father of COVID-19 Vaccines”, rumors have surfaced claiming that he has been sentenced to death after being removed from his position as a national People’s Congress representative in April 2024. While some social media and internet users have suggested that this news may be false, there has been no official denial from the authorities, and mainland official media outlets have yet to report on the matter.

The news of Yang Xiaoming’s death sentence originated from a screenshot on the corporate credit inquiry tool “Qichacha” on the Baidu website. The screenshot displayed a report titled “Yang Xiaoming, the developer of the Sinovac vaccine, dismissed for serious violations and sentenced to death,” stating that he was removed from the 14th National People’s Congress and sentenced to death due to alleged serious violations of laws and regulations, with specific details of his misconduct not yet disclosed but confirmed to be unrelated to vaccine development or operations.

Previously, on April 26, 2024, the Chinese Communist Party officially announced that Yang Xiaoming, the former chairman and chief scientist of China Biotech, was dismissed from his position as a national People’s Congress representative for suspected serious violations of laws and regulations. However, the information in the Qichacha screenshot claiming that Yang Xiaoming was recently removed and sentenced to death does not seem reasonable.

On March 27 and 28, 2025, the news of Yang Xiaoming being sentenced to death circulated widely on the internet, but major official Chinese media outlets have not confirmed the veracity of the information. Some Weibo users and mainland self-media outlets believe that the news could be a rumor.

Lawyer Hu Guiyun posted on Weibo, questioning the credibility of the news about Yang Xiaoming’s death sentence: “Yang Xiaoming, the developer of the Sinovac vaccine, sentenced to death for violations of laws and regulations? Why can’t other channels find relevant information?”

A Weibo user named “Finance and Economics Feishuo Not” commented, “The developer of the COVID-19 vaccine was quietly sentenced to death?”

Weibo influencer “Weibo Hero” stated that under Chinese law, the “Crime of Serious Responsibility Incident” is applicable in cases of vaccine development accidents, with a maximum imprisonment term of seven years.

Lawyer Wang Cailiang remarked, “This rumor exposes the adverse consequences of the Supreme Court’s closure of the judgment document network, which, although partially restored later, still fails to timely and fully disclose the judgment documents.”

Overseas netizen Taomiao Mr. expressed concerns, mentioning the deaths of several prominent figures related to COVID-19 vaccines and concluding that Yang Xiaoming faces the death penalty, portraying a series of elimination of scientists who had contributed to vaccine development for the Chinese Communist Party.

As of the time of this report, there has been no official rebuttal from the Chinese authorities regarding the claim that Yang Xiaoming has been sentenced to death.

Yang Xiaoming previously served as the chief scientist of the “863” Program Vaccine Project in China, director of the United Vaccine Engineering Technology Research Center, and chief scientist of China National Pharmaceutical Group. During the COVID-19 pandemic, he led a team in developing and marketing the first domestically produced inactivated COVID-19 vaccine in China.

In late April 2021, Yang Xiaoming publicly announced that “China developed the inactivated COVID-19 vaccine in just 98 days.” He also mentioned that the entire process from project approval to research, development, and marketing of China Biotech’s COVID-19 vaccine took around 330 days, unprecedentedly short. This earned him the title of “Father of China’s COVID-19 Vaccines.”

However, globally, the development and approval of a vaccine typically take over ten years, even under expedited circumstances requiring around five to six years. The effectiveness and safety of China’s domestically produced vaccines have been widely questioned domestically and internationally since their launch. Many individuals have reported various side effects after receiving COVID-19 vaccines, including measles, leukemia, heart disease, and suspected links to numerous sudden deaths.

Following Yang Xiaoming’s downfall, there has been a wave of skepticism online in mainland China.

Internet user Zhu Zhiyong expressed concerns, stating, “The arrest of Yang Xiaoming, the chief scientist of China Biotech, is alarming given his title as the ‘Father of China’s COVID-19 Vaccines.’ The scandals surrounding Sinovac have already made people uneasy. What other specters may rise within China Biopharmaceutical’s products? It is distressing, fearful, and enraging that the COVID-19 vaccines administered to the general Chinese population were developed by unscrupulous criminals.”

“Lu Xiaozhou Strategy” remarked, “The information surrounding COVID-19 vaccines is truly confusing. Initially, it was said that the vaccine was developed by female general Chen Wei, who had notable achievements in conquering the Ebola virus. I was willing to take the vaccine for this reason, as I believe the vast majority were. Later, when the Sinovac vaccine was administered, I thought it was developed by Chen Wei. It wasn’t until 2024 that I learned it was developed by this person.”

Tang Jingyuan, a medical background political analyst based in the United States, previously told Da Ji Yuan that Yang Xiaoming’s investigation likely coincides with the imminent peak of adverse reactions to China’s domestic vaccines, prompting many individuals to seek accountability and compensation. It’s highly probable that the Chinese authorities are preemptively shifting blame by using Yang Xiaoming as a scapegoat to shoulder responsibility.

Lai Jianping, a former Beijing lawyer and chairman of the Movement for Democracy in Canada, believed that Yang Xiaoming’s downfall likely involves sensitive, specific, and politically charged issues. It may involve disloyalty to the party, possibly leakage of classified information, or handling an excessive amount of undisclosed confidential information related to the development and response to the COVID-19 pandemic, seen as a threat by the authorities and subject to purging.

Five years after the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, the origins of the virus remain shrouded in mystery, with an increasing number of individuals believing the virus originated from a leak at a lab in Wuhan. Such matters involve China’s “national secrets.”

Independent commentator Du Zheng recently wrote in the Taiwanese media《Up Media》that cases involving the downfall of Chinese officials concerning “national secrets” may lead to secret trials and even secret executions for many individuals involved.