On August 12, 2015, shortly after the a series of deadly explosions in Tianjin, Yang Dongliang accompanied State Councilor and Public Security Minister Guo Shengkun to Tianjin, where he had worked before his transfer, as part of an emergency response team. Yang spent the next few days in Tianjin working around the clock to manage the response. On August 18, however, the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI) announced that he was under investigation for serious violation of laws and discipline; it was not clear if the investigation was linked to the events in Tianjin. Yang was the sixth full member of the 18th Central Committee to be investigated for wrongdoing.