State Food and Drug Administration
Yang has in recent years paid attention to the development of China's regulatory system and studied a number of regulatory institutions ranging from sports doping, to drug manufacturing, and food safety. One recent paper dissects the tragic failures associated with State Food and Drug Administration, which ended in the execution of Zheng Xiaoyu, its former commissioner, in 2007. Together with Waikeung Tam, he discussed, in 2005, how China's fragmented regulatory structure contributed to a major baby formula scandal The recent incidence of the Sanlu milk scandal, which has resulted in at least four babies dead and more than 50,000 hospitalized, shows the Chinese food safety regime remains deficient.