Yang was born on 16 July 1919 in the town of Zhenze in Wujiang, Jiangsu, Republic of China.
[1][2][3] Yang received a Bachelor of Science in electrical engineering from Chiao Tung University in Shanghai in 1941.
[2] In 1956, Yang returned to China and worked as a research scientist at the Institute of Automation under the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
[5] In March 1986, Yang and three other prominent scientists—Wang Daheng, Wang Ganchang, and Chen Fangyun—wrote a letter to Deng Xiaoping advocating the development of strategic technologies.
[6] Deng accepted their proposal, which gave birth to the influential 863 Program, named after the date of their letter.