Chinese economist Zhu Hengpeng, deputy director of the Institute of Economics at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, disappeared recently after criticizing dictator Xi Jinping’s economic policies in a private online chat group.
Zhu, 54, was detained after making “comments about China’s flagging economy and veiled criticism of Xi that referred to his mortality” on WeChat, as a source familiar with the case told the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) on Tuesday.
No one familiar with the case seemed willing to quote exactly what Zhu said that got him “disappeared.” The WSJ was unable to get a comment from Chinese officials about the status of Zhu’s case, the charges against him, or even if he obtained legal representation.
Zhu’s last public comments were made in April, when he made a controversial proposal for young Chinese to pay money directly into the pension accounts for their parents to close a massive funding gap.
Chinese social media recoiled in horror from the idea, pointing out that youth unemployment is sky-high and the younger generation is filled with despair, so forcing them to pay extra taxes to support their parents’ pensions could be like touching a match to a powder keg.
Zhu quietly vanished from public view sometime between those controversial April comments and a May 25 conference at which he was supposed to sit on an academic committee. Zhu evidently did not show up for the conference and all mention of him has since been deleted from its records.
Zhu was a highly respected member of the Chinese elite before his sudden fall from grace. In addition to his deputy directorship of the Institute of Economics, he was also the deputy secretary for the Chinese Communist Party at that institution.
The Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS) is an influential advisory body that reports to the State Council, China’s version of a ministerial Cabinet. Zhu has been working there for over 20 years, specializing in the economics of health care. He became deputy director of the CASS Institute of Economics ten years ago.
Zhu also held a directorship position at China Meheco Group, a state-owned pharmaceutical company, from 2013 to 2015. All of his titles and positions have been stripped away without fanfare and most of his presence on the Internet has been deleted.
CASS was recently subjected to a political indoctrination campaign that required its leaders to sign pledges of obedience to Communist Party doctrine on economic issues. The pledges include “Ten Prohibitions,” a list of topics CASS staffers were not allowed to discuss, and a strict ban on “collusion with foreign entities.”
CASS President Gao Xing, a loyal servant of Xi Jinping, proudly declared that his staff should be “fearful in their hearts, careful with their words, and restrained in their actions” due to the Ten Prohibitions. He personally led some of the political indoctrination sessions.
China-watchers compared Zhu’s disappearance to the infamous crushing of Alibaba founder Jack Ma, who dared to criticize Chinese Communist Party economic policies at a Shanghai event in October 2020.
Ma was the richest man in China at the time and a flamboyant figure in Chinese media but he vanished into thin air, resurfaced in exile several months later, and was finally welcomed back to China in March 2023 when Xi and his stooges became desperate to woo foreign investors back to their flagging post-pandemic economy.
Another striking “disappearance” was Defense Minister Li Shangfu, who evaporated in August 2023. Chinese censors simply erased him from the government without naming a replacement. Several months later, Xi formally sacked Li from his post, while Chinese Communist Party media announced he was under investigation for corruption.
Xi may be especially sensitive about criticism of his economic policies by high-ranking Party members at the moment because he is launching desperation stimulus programs to jolt the moribund Chinese economy back to life. Plummeting consumer confidence is one of the biggest problems facing China’s central planners.
