The star of China’s booming synthetic intelligence protection sector had been engaged on Taiwan invasion situations—till he died in an unexplained automobile crash within the early hours of the morning in Beijing, aged simply 38.
Many questions stay over the July 1, 2023 loss of life of Feng Yanghe, a professor on the National University of Defense Technology, who had gained nationwide competitions together with his pioneering “War Skull” platform.
Such as, why did an obituary within the state-run science information web site, Sciencenet.cn, say he was “sacrificed”? Why was the sensible scientist from Gansu province buried in a particular cemetery in Beijing for the Communist Party elite, state heroes, and revolutionary martyrs?
Yet as within the U.S., Feng’s loss of life was simply one among many sudden deaths of top-flight scientists working in ultra-sensitive fields comparable to navy AI, hypersonic weapons, and house protection, in response to studies in Chinese and abroad Chinese media.
The phenomenon mirrors the wave of disappearances or deaths amongst American scientists that’s now being investigated by Washington. In the U.S, there have been 11 circumstances, in China at the very least 9.
It’s prompted a disturbing query amongst some navy analysts: Is there a silent “scientist war” occurring?
‘A mastermind war-gaming Taiwan’
Competition between the U.S. and China is deepening with the Chinese and Russian leaders having proclaimed “changes unseen in a century” to the world order and that they’re driving the modifications. This nationwide energy competitors is happening largely within the fields of science and know-how which ship not simply financial but in addition decisive navy prowess.
In China, media and social media studies and obituaries have attributed the deaths to site visitors accidents, different unspecified “accidents”, or no trigger in any respect. Their ages have ranged from 26 to 68.
Feng was leaving a piece assembly within the Chinese capital when he died at round 2.35 a.m, in response to the state-run China Daily, which cited a discover from the organizing committee of his memorial service. He had been engaged on a “major task,” the report stated, with out giving particulars. Sciencenet.cn stated he was “sacrificed while peforming official duties.”
“Feng was a mastermind behind AI simulations of potential Taiwan scenarios and it’s very odd that the accident happened in the middle of the night,” stated an skilled researcher of the Chinese navy who works at a Western suppose tank and who has been monitoring the scenario.
They agreed to remark solely on situation of anonymity because of the exceeding sensitivity of the difficulty. “I don’t think it’s good for your health to be associated with this kind of thing,” the researcher advised Newsweek.
“A person killed in a car crash would not typically be described as a having ‘sacrificed’ his life,” stated the researcher, who speaks Chinese. The individual additionally stated that Feng’s burial within the hallowed Babaoshan cemetery in Beijing was “very odd.”
“The areas [where the deaths are occurring] are in hypersonics, in military AI including swarming technology simulations, stuff that could really make a difference. These types of tech seem to be overrepresented in the clusters. The point could be, not to elimate an entire group, but if they take out some of the brightest minds doing path-breaking work then it has a deterrent effect,” the researcher stated, including that a number of the circumstances will in all probability become “complete accidents.”
Hypothetically, an adversary “could be trying to slow [China] down. It’s starting to look more and more unusual,” the individual concluded.
The Chinese Embassy in Washington, D.C. ,stated they had been “not aware of the relevant situation” when Newsweek reached out by way of e mail.
“What I want to stress is that China has always been committed to promoting scientific and technological progress through cooperation and healthy competition,” a spokesperson for the embassy’s Information and Public Affairs Section stated.
Asked by Newsweek, White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly didn’t touch upon the China scenario however stated: “The White House continues to coordinate across the interagency in order to investigate these events and provide transparency to the American people. We will not get ahead of the investigation.”
Outlandish—however Not Impossible
It seems outlandish. But scientists have always been a political target, too. An unknown number of Iranian nuclear scientists have been assassinated, allegedly by Israel as it has sought to slow Iran’s progress to becoming a nuclear-armed state. More died in Israeli and U.S. bombing strikes in June 2025.
There is no evidence that the U.S. and China, or Russia, are engaged in cut-throat scientist assassination campaigns or that they have been targeted by other hostile states. But the stakes couldn’t be higher.
Chinese-language media tracking the untimely or unexplained deaths frequently hint at their suspicions with headlines such as: “Eight Top Scientists ‘Mysteriously Die’!” Taiwan’s Formosa TV News called it “Extremely Uncommon” in a report last year.
In the Communist Party-ruled mainland of China and Hong Kong, speculation has swirled: “But who would have thought that even within the twenty first century, a number of Chinese geniuses who studied or visited abroad would die mysteriously and inexplicably!” read one article in October last year on the popular 163.com website.
Some Chinese media have noted that other deaths—which are not among the nine tracked by Newsweek—have occurred in the U.S., or that many of the scientists had spent time studying there.
However that is not unusual, as for decades China sent tens of thousands of its brightest scientists to train at America’s top universities.
Many returned to China, either willingly or under subtle or not-so-subtle pressure, to contribute to China’s scientific, technological and military modernization.
More Untimely Deaths
Other deaths attributed to car accidents have included Zhang Xiaoxin, 62, in December 2024, a space expert at the National Satellite Meteorological Centre who specialised in weather monitoring and early warning systems, according to the South China Morning Post.
“Zhang gained a prime award given by the Chinese navy for science and tech progress, though little data is offered about his analysis mission,” the newspaper reported.
In 2018, Chen Shuming, 57, a Chinese military scientist and microelectronics expert at the National University of Defense Technology as “chief of China’s high-end weapon chip analysis and growth workforce,” died in a car accident, according to Electronic Engineering Times China.
The celebrated chemist Zhou Guangyuan died aged 51, in December 2023, with no cause of death given. In an obituary Sciencenet.cn said that after years of study Zhou “had developed a extra profound sense of doing what the nation wants.”
The expert on materials, especially polymers, was a member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and a researcher at the Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics who worked with organisations in practical applications for his research. No cause of death was given.
The hypersonics field has also lost experts such as Fang Daining, 68, apparently after an unexpected medical episode in South Africa in February this year.
“Fang studied super-strong supplies for spacecraft and superior engines at Beijing Institute of Technology (BIT), a key defence analysis college,” the South China Morning Post reported, quoting an obituary it stated was posted on the campus of his employer.
Another hypersonics researcher, Yan Hong, 56, who had worked at Wright State University in Ohio before returning to China to join the U.S.-sanctioned Northwestern Polytechnical University, died in March, reportedly following an illness, the South China Morning Post reported.
Last year Zhang Daibing, 47, one of China’s top drone experts and the former deputy director of the National University of Defense Technology’s Unmanned Systems Research Institute as well as the founder of Yunzhihang Technology company, died in Changsha in Hunan province, according to Singapore’s Lianhe Zaobao newspaper. No cause of death was given.
Liu Donghao, 51, a prominent data scientist, died in 2024 after an unspecified accident. Liu was the founder of Guizhou Big Data Protection Engineering Security Research and a pioneer in the field of China’s data security management systems, the Global Times reported.
Li Minyong, 49, an internationally renowed biomedical chemist who was a Ministry of Education “expertise plan” awardee and a member of the non-Communist Zhigong Party that is part of the CCP’s United Front, died in Guangzhou in November 2025 after a sudden illness, according to his obituary. He had developed “modern medicine guided by visualization and light-controlled regulation,” the obituary stated.
‘Pretty Serious Stuff’
Meanwhile, in the U.S., the string of missing or deceased scientists has drawn widespread attention and online speculation. It could be connected to a “foreign operation,” Representative Eric Burlison said on Sunday. The FBI is investigating.
“We are in competition with China, Russia, and Iran on nuclear technology, advanced weapons, and space. Meanwhile, our top scientists keep vanishing,” the Missouri Republican posted on X.
The growing list of deaths or disappearances of U.S. specialists in superior house, protection and nuclear fields lately was known as “pretty serious stuff” final week by President Donald Trump, who added that he hoped it was a “coincidence.”
No official connections have been confirmed among the many current circumstances raised by on-line studies.