During Yang Yugeng's decades of work in the Central Government of China, he was the founding and organising committee member of many national large-scale sports events, such as the First and Second National Games of China in the 1960s, and the famous Sino-US Table Tennis Friendship Tournament (as known as the Ping-Pong Diplomacy) in the 1970s. On behalf of China, he was passionate about promoting sports and peace worldwide, including the organisation of sports events and the sponsorship of sports equipment to African and South American countries.