After the founding of People's Republic of China (PRC), he served as secretary of CPC Nanyang District Committee, director of Luoyang No.1 Tractor Factory and secretary of Party Committee. At the beginning of the establishment of Luoyang Institute of Technology, he was appointed as the first president. Since then, he has successively served as the Ministry of Agricultural Machinery, the Deputy Minister of the Eighth Ministry of Machinery Industry, the Deputy Minister and Minister of Agriculture and Forestry, and the Minister of Agricultural Machinery. He is a deputy to the Fifth National People's Congress and a member of the Sixth and Seventh the NPC Standing Committee.

Comrade Yang was the first president of Luoyang Institute of Technology 1958 to 1964. When Luoyang Institute of Technology was founded, everything was in ruins. Under the leadership of Yang Dean Gong Li, the three departments of machinery, chemical engineering and metallurgy enrolled 270 students for the first time 1958, 196 1 year, and the number of four-year undergraduate majors reached 10. The orderly development of education and teaching activities and the continuous improvement of teaching quality have laid a solid foundation for the healthy and rapid development of the school in the future. Comrade Yang's rigorous and down-to-earth work style and the spirit of seeking truth and being pragmatic and pursuing truth are examples for us to learn, which deserve our eternal admiration and memory.