As 11 scientists researching space, aviation and nuclear power in the United States have recently died or gone missing in quick succession, a report said that in China, too, several scientists over the years have met mysterious deaths.
According to Newsweek on the 23rd (local time), Feng Yanghe, a core scientist in China's artificial intelligence (AI) defense field and a professor at the National University of Defense Technology, died suddenly in a traffic accident in Beijing at dawn on July 1, 2023.
At the time, the obituary on ScienceNet.cn, China's largest online community for the scientific world, stated that Feng had "died in the line of duty," and Newsweek said questions are also being raised because he was buried in a special cemetery in Beijing where senior Chinese Communist Party figures and others are interred.
An anonymous expert at a Western think tank that studies the Chinese military said, "Feng was a key figure in AI simulations related to Taiwan, and it is highly unusual that the accident occurred in the middle of the night," adding, "It is not common to describe a simple traffic accident fatality as a 'sacrifice.'"
According to Newsweek's analysis, at least nine cases of scientists' deaths or disappearances have been reported in China. The ages of the deceased range from 26 to 68, and Chinese media and social media (SNS) have reported that their causes of death were recorded as traffic accidents, other accidents, or unknown causes.
In particular, the fields in which deaths occurred include hypersonics, military AI, and swarm-technology simulations—areas that can significantly affect actual military power. For this reason, some have raised suspicions that there may be forces behind the scenes seeking to slow China's scientific and technological progress.
Newsweek said, "Feng's death is just one of several unexpected deaths among top-tier scientists working in sensitive fields," adding, "Scientists have historically been political targets. Iranian nuclear scientists were also assassinated by Israel."