  We prove a Liouville type theorem for the linearly perturbed Paneitz
equation: For $\epsilon>0$ small enough, if $u_\epsilon$ is a positive smooth
solution of
  $$P_{S^3} u_\epsilon+\epsilon u_\epsilon=-u_\epsilon^{-7} \qquad
\mathrm{~~on~~}S^3,$$ where $P_{S^3}$ is the Paneitz operator of the round
metric $g_{S^3}$, then $u_\epsilon$ is constant. This confirms a conjecture
proposed by Fengbo Hang and Paul Yang in [ Int. Math. Res. Not. IMRN, 2020 (11)
].
