Country Garden Distress

In October 2023, amid a debt crisis in which Country Garden had reportedly missed a $15 million offshore coupon payment, the company publicly denied social-media rumors that Yang Guoqiang and Yang Huiyan had left China, stating both were 'working as normal' and reserving the right to pursue responsibility for what it called 'malicious rumour mongering.'.

Yang's daughter, Yang Huiyan, had served as co-chairman since December 2018 and was already managing day-to-day operations alongside her father before succeeding him as sole chairman on March 1, 2023; she started at Country Garden in 2005 after graduating from Ohio State University and inheriting her father's majority stake, and held 52.6% of group equity as of the filing.