A top economist has joined the growing list of China’s elite to have disappeared from public life after criticizing Xi Jinping, according to The Wall Street Journal. 

Zhu Hengpeng served as deputy director of the Institute of Economics at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS) for around a decade.

CASS is a state research think tank that reports directly to China’s cabinet. Chen Daoyin, a former associate professor at Shanghai University of Political Science and Law, described it as a “body to formulate party ideology to support the leadership.”

According to the Journal, the 55-year-old disappeared shortly after remarking on China’s sluggish economy and criticizing Xi’s leadership in a private group on WeChat.

  • @bloodfart@lemmy.ml
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    31 day ago

    Im making this reply to help you better respond to people, not to start a fight:

    Hey, just a heads up, your cfr link directly cites Adrian zenz, the person many people don’t trust to make even handed statements about China, directly twice.

    The vox link sources statements from him several times. I tried to just quickly parse what was what but I came up with seven different statements.

    The bbc article seems to reference zenz in six different claims.

    I wasn’t able to give these articles a deep read, or check if the other sources also pull from that particular controversial figure or his organizations.