As the chief editor of Morning Bell Press, Yao had been working on a reprint of Fire and Ice, a 1998 collection of political essays. Yao was also reportedly working with US-based author and dissident Yu Jie on an unauthorized biography about China’s president, Xi Jingping, when he disappeared in 2013.
Yao was formally arrested and had been in prison since 2014. Yao, already 73-years-old when admitted to prison, was not in good physical condition as he suffers from heart problems. Reports suggest his good behavior eventually led to a sentence reduction and his release.
Upon his arrest, Ola Wallin, the Chair of the IPA’s Freedom to Publish Committee Chair at the time, had called on China to immediately release Yao when he was detained and arrested in 2013 and 2014.