On the morning of November 26, 2008, Yang Jia was executed by lethal injection in Shanghai at the age of 28. This was only five days after the Supreme People's Court issued its approval ruling, and less than a day after his mother received the ruling.
On November 21, 2008, the Supreme People's Court issued a criminal ruling approving the death sentence of Yang Jia. It was only after 7 p.m. on November 25 that Wang Jingmei received this ruling, with only one night left before the execution.
On November 5, 2008, the State Council executive meeting decided to launch an investment plan of about 4 trillion yuan to cope with the international economic crisis, which was announced publicly on November 9; most of the funds were invested in infrastructure.
On October 20, 2008, the Shanghai High People's Court issued Criminal Ruling (2008) Hu Gao Xing Zhong Zi No. 131, rejecting Yang Jia's appeal, upholding the first-instance death sentence, and reporting it to the Supreme People's Court for review and approval. When the ruling was issued, Yang Jia's mother, Wang Jingmei, was still confined in a psychiatric hospital.
On the day of Yang Jia's second-instance trial, a large crowd gathered outside the Shanghai High People's Court, with some shouting "Long live Yang Jia." About a dozen protesters wearing T-shirts printed with Yang Jia's portrait and the words "If you don't give me an explanation, I'll give you one" were taken away on the spot in front of the police. This was a rare street action in China in support of a defendant.
At 9:30 a.m. on October 13, 2008, the Shanghai High People's Court opened the second-instance trial of the Yang Jia case in a closed hearing. The defense lawyer requested a new psychiatric evaluation, but the court rejected it on the spot, ruling that the grounds were insufficient. During the hearing, the prosecution and the defense debated the appearance of witnesses, the qualifications of the appraisal institution, and whether Yang Jia had been beaten at the police station.
In the face of the global financial tsunami, in September 2008 Wen Jiabao led the State Council in announcing a large-scale 4 trillion yuan bailout plan for infrastructure investment.
On the morning of September 1, 2008, the Shanghai No. 2 Intermediate People's Court announced its verdict, sentencing Yang Jie to death for intentional homicide and deprivation of political rights for life. Yang Jie and his defense lawyer did not speak throughout the announcement, nor did they indicate whether they would appeal. Online questions about the closed trial, the qualifications of the appraiser, and the identity of the defense lawyer immediately spread.
On the afternoon of August 26, 2008, the Yang Jia case was heard in first instance at the Shanghai No. 2 Intermediate People's Court; the hearing was postponed to this day because of the Beijing Olympics. The court gave all the gallery seats to the Shanghai Public Security Bureau, more than 20 domestic and foreign media outlets and citizens who came to observe were turned away, and the hearing notice was only displayed on the electronic screen in front of the court. No verdict was announced that day.
During the Beijing Olympics, the authorities set up a demonstration zone. On August 18, the Beijing Public Security Bureau said it had received 77 applications involving 149 person-times in total, and not a single one was approved.
On August 17, 2008, two elderly people, Wu Dianyuan and Wang Xiuying, who had applied to petition in the Beijing Olympics protest zone because their homes were forcibly demolished, were decided to be subjected to one year of re-education through labor on the grounds of disturbing public order; on August 29, that decision was rescinded under pressure from international public opinion.
Zhang Yimou served as chief director of the opening and closing ceremonies of the 29th Beijing Olympic Games, presenting the country's image and a visual spectacle to the world through massive human formations and militaristically precise choreography.
The night after the Yang Jia case occurred, his mother Wang Jingmei was first taken to the Datun Police Station in Chaoyang District, and was then sent by Shanghai and Beijing police to the Ankang Psychiatric Hospital of the Beijing Public Security Bureau in Shunyi District and forcibly detained. Her family only learned of her whereabouts four months later, and legal professionals pointed out that there was no regulatory basis whatsoever for sending her to a psychiatric hospital.
On July 1, 2008, Yang Jia, a young man from Beijing, walked alone into the Zhabei Public Security Bureau in Shanghai, stabbing six police officers to death and wounding four officers and one security guard, and was arrested on the spot. In October of the previous year, while riding a rented bicycle in Shanghai, he was stopped and questioned by Zhabei police, taken into the police station and beaten. For the following nine months he filed complaints everywhere but could not get any redress. On November 26 of the same year, Yang Jia was executed by the Chinese Communist Party's tyrannical regime.
The video claims that in June 2008 Hu Jintao presided over a Politburo meeting to deploy Olympic security, with Beijing mobilizing 50,000 police officers and more than 1 million militia patrol members and volunteers; no public reports of this meeting or these figures can be found.
Liu Shaokun, a teacher in Deyang, Sichuan, photographed school buildings that collapsed during the earthquake and questioned the construction quality. He was taken away by police on June 25, 2008, and was later sentenced to one year of re-education through labor.
In June 2008, Wang Yi, Vice President of the China Development Bank, who had been in a relationship with Liu Fangfei and paid off her mortgage, was taken away by a special investigation team of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection for 'shuanggui' (a form of detention for party members). He was later sentenced to death with a two-year reprieve in 2010.
On May 12, 2008, a magnitude 8.0 earthquake struck Wenchuan. Statistics as of September 25 of that year showed about 69,000 people killed and 18,000 missing, with large numbers of students buried under collapsed school buildings.
On May 12, 2008, a magnitude 8.0 earthquake struck Wenchuan, Sichuan. Official statistics as of September 25 recorded 69,227 dead and 17,923 missing, with a large number of houses collapsed; the video links the casualties to building quality.
After the Wenchuan earthquake in May 2008, large numbers of civilian volunteers and professional rescue teams from various regions joined the disaster relief effort, which is often regarded as a symbol of the rise of civil society in China.
Since mid-2006, U.S. home prices have fallen by more than 20% on average; home equity dropped from about $13 trillion in 2006 to about $8.8 trillion in mid-2008, and the video says household net worth evaporated by about $13 trillion.
In the name of commemorating his late wife, Zhao Xicheng gave assets worth 5 million to 25 million US dollars to Zhao Xiaolan and McConnell, greatly increasing the McConnell couple's wealth.
During Wang Shi's tenure as the second president of Alxa SEE, the association experienced an incident where the secretariat unilaterally added investment funds. Ren Zhiqiang proposed impeachment, and Wang Shi publicly acknowledged his mistakes, demonstrating the association's rules' constraint on power.
After the Wenchuan earthquake, Wang Shi's suggestion that employees donate with a limit of 10 yuan sparked public criticism, Vanke's stock fell, Wang Shi was forced to apologize and make an additional donation, showing the societal pressure of supervision on public figures.
Citing data, the program claimed that China's cumulative infrastructure investment from 2008 to 2024 was about 120 trillion yuan, averaging roughly 9.7% of GDP per year; no public source could be found for this figure.
At the end of 2008, the national team adjusted its management measures, and players such as Li Na, Zheng Jie, Peng Shuai and Yan Zi began to arrange their own training and professional competitions, putting the "flying solo" system into practice.