View source for Yang Bin (businessman)

{{short description|Chinese-Dutch businessman (born 1963)}}
{{redirect|Holland Village, China|Holland Village in Shanghai|Gaoqiao, Shanghai}}
'''Yang Bin''' ({{zh|t=楊斌}}; born 1963) is a [[Chinese people in the Netherlands|Chinese-Dutch]] businessman who was formerly listed as the second richest man in China by [[Forbes]] for 2001. He once held assets in the horticulture and real estate industries, owning stakes in the Euro-Asia Agricultural Holdings and Holland Village, China. His fall from grace came in 2002, when he was arrested on charges of tax evasion. In 2003 Yang Bin was sentenced to 18 years in prison. Mr. Yang was released from prison on September  26, 2016.
== Biography ==
Born in [[Nanjing]], Yang lost his parents when he was five; he was raised by his grandmother and relatives. He was a former officer in the [[People's Liberation Army Navy]]. He later emigrated to the [[Netherlands]] in 1987, where he ran a textile business and became a naturalized Dutch citizen. He returned to China in 1995, starting his orchid business in [[Shenyang]] using modern  [[Horticulture|horticultural]] techniques learned from the [[Netherlands]].
In September 2002, [[North Korea]] chose Yang Bin to govern and lead the economic development of the [[Sinŭiju Special Administrative Region]].<ref>{{cite magazine
|title=The Hermit Kingdom's Bizarre SAR
|author=Michael Schuman/Sinuiju
|magazine=[[TIME]]
|date=30 September 2002
|access-date=2011-06-14
|url=http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,356131,00.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20021020022943/http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,356131,00.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=October 20, 2002}}</ref> Shortly after his appointment, Chinese authorities removed him from his home and placed him on house arrest on 4 October. He was formally arrested on charges of tax evasion in November. Yang Bin was then formally sentenced in July 2003 to 18 years, and was fined for 2.3 million [[renminbi]].<ref name = Guardian>{{cite news
|title=Tycoon jailed for 18 years
|author=Jonathan Watts
|newspaper=[[The Guardian]]
|date=15 July 2003
|access-date=2011-06-14
|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2003/jul/15/china.jonathanwatts}}</ref> Many of the charges were related to the building of Holland Village, a 220-hectare Netherlands-themed development project in the suburbs of Shenyang.<ref name = Guardian/> Included among the charges was the building of properties on land originally acquired for agricultural use.<ref>{{cite news
|title=China's wealthy orchid king on trial for fraud
|author=John Gittings
|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2003/jun/12/china.johngittings
|newspaper=The Guardian
|date=13 June 2003
|access-date=2011-06-29}}</ref>
== References ==
{{reflist}}
==External links==
*{{in lang|zh}} [http://finance.sina.com.cn/roll/20040515/1020762072.shtml Euro-Asia Agricultural Holdings delisted from Hong Kong Stock Exchange]
{{DEFAULTSORT:Yang, Bin}}
[[Category:Businesspeople from Nanjing]]
[[Category:Dutch businesspeople]]
[[Category:North Korean politicians]]
[[Category:1961 births]]
[[Category:Living people]]
[[Category:Chinese emigrants to the Netherlands]]
[[Category:Chinese white-collar criminals]]
[[Category:Dutch people imprisoned abroad]]
[[Category:Chinese prisoners and detainees]]
[[Category:Prisoners and detainees of the People's Republic of China]]
[[Category:Chinese people convicted of tax crimes]]