Date of Birth: 
Place of Birth: Harbin, Heilongjiang, China
About Zhao Yan (journalist)
- Zhao Yan (pinyin: Zhà o Yán; Simplified Chinese: ??, born 14 March 1962) is a Chinese researcher employed by the Beijing bureau of the New York Times.
- He was imprisoned for a three-year period starting 17 September 2004, on charges of fraud, after originally being arrested for revealing state secrets.
- According to the BBC, he was released on 15 September 2007.The accusation that he disclosed state secrets is related to an article in The NY Times on 7 September 2004, that correctly predicted the retirement of Jiang Zemin, former General Secretary of the Communist Party of China and paramount leader.
- Jiang retired on 19 September of that year.
- The NY Times had said that Zhao did not provide that information. On 17 June 2006, Zhao was tried in a closed-door session in Beijing.
- He was found guilty of fraud but not of revealing state secrets.
- Zhao was sentenced to three years jail on 24 August 2006; at that time, he had already served almost two years of his sentence.
- He is the first person to be charged with, but acquitted of revealing state secrets in China. Before joining The New York Times, Zhao was a well-known investigative journalist who reported on farmers' rights issues for the Beijing-based Zhongguo Gaige ???? (China Reform) magazine.
- [1] He had written extensively on the plight of some 20,000 peasants who had been relocated in the 1990s to make way for the Taolinkou reservoir in Hebei Province (see Tangshan Protest).
- He was sacked by China Reform after more than 11,000 farmers submitted a petition to the National People's Congress.
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