Within a week of the beginning of 2024, at least eight well-known experts and professors in China died of illness. Notably, two were under the age of 60, and one was only 61.
Wang Shushan, a professor at the School of Electrical and Mechanical Engineering of Beijing Institute of Technology (BIT), passed away on Jan. 1, 2024 at the People’s Hospital of Peking University due to illness. He was 59 years old.
Mr. Wang, a senior member of the China Society of Military Engineers, served as an academic leader in the national key disciplines of artillery, automatic weapons and ammunition engineering, and terminal effect research.
The official obituary released by BIT praised him for having made breakthroughs in many national defense research fields, such as underwater weapons.
BIT is one of the seven universities in China sanctioned by the United States for having ties to the military.
On Jan. 6, 2024, the Board of Directors of Fujian Foxit Software Development Co., Ltd. announced that Ye Dongyi, an independent board director of the company, passed away recently due to illness.
Mr. Ye was a professor of science and big data at Fuzhou University. Born in February 1964, he was not yet 60 years old. Mr. Ye’s other titles included the Fujian Province Information Industry Expert Committee, Fujian Provincial Computer Society, and vice chairman of the Fujian Provincial Artificial Intelligence Society.
Shen Yifeng, a professor and former dean of the School of Management at Xiamen University, passed away on Jan. 2, 2024, at the age of 61. Mr. Shen presided over a number of research projects, including the National Natural Science Foundation and the Social Science Foundation of the Ministry of Education.
He received several provincial and ministerial-level awards for his research achievements. He also served as an independent board director of listed companies such as Xiamen Road and Bridge.
Others on the list included Gu Xinyi, an academician and expert in petroleum and mining machinery, who had served as former senior chief expert of SINOPEC Shengli Oilfield; Chang Yi, a professor at Southwest University of Political Science and Law and one of the founding figures of communist China’s Civil Litigation Law; Li Yueping, a renowned expert in Integrated Traditional Chinese and Western Medicine; Liao Duanduan, an ophthalmologist and former Vice Chairman of Guangdong Optometric Society; and Dong Yansheng, China’s very first doctoral supervisor in Spanish language and literature.
Seven of the eight deceased were members of the Chinese Communist Party.
