On December 18, 2010, Ai Weiwei was interviewed by the documentary program of Sunny TV, talking about Yang Jia as he knew him: he liked blogging, mountain climbing, and spending time with people he liked — not a reclusive person, but a person who made choices. He said Yang Jia went this far to defend the dignity of life; when most people swallow down filthy things, Yang Jia said, I won't swallow this.
After Yang Jia was executed, his mother Wang Jingmei opened a blog on Sina. Her first post wrote of the grief of losing her son. The blog was soon forced to close. Ai Weiwei cited this case in a blog roundtable discussion in January 2009 to illustrate the power of individual voices, and how afraid the authorities are.
After the Yang Jia case occurred, artist Ai Weiwei published a series of posts on his blog, pressing questions about the details of Yang Jia's case, the circumstances of his mother being committed to a psychiatric hospital, and the violations of procedure during the trial; his blog at one point became a gathering point for online public opinion. After that, he spoke out for Yang Jia multiple times.