JY escaped China. His father was executed by the communist party, and well, if you were alive at the time you were well aware of what the risks were of staying

JY escaped China. His father was executed by the communist party, and well, if you were alive at the time you were well aware of what the risks were of staying or leaving. He chose to leave. Chinese oppression in the time pre-the Internet is very different from what it is now. One could argue that the lack of a centralized Internet and single "firewall" creates opportunities for JY's newsletter to spread underground. Regardless of his ban, he was already a famous author in Hong Kong, and his work spread. In the 1980s Deng Xiaoping, Mao's successor met with JY as he was a massive fan of JY's work. Together they instrumented a lot of political change in China in a desire to make it more open. This meeting later resulted in the ban being lifted.