Top economist in China vanishes after private WeChat comments
Summary
- A government adviser was detained and removed from his posts after he allegedly criticized the Chinese leader’s management of the economy.
A prominent economist at one of China’s top think tanks was placed under investigation, detained and removed from his posts after he allegedly criticized leader Xi Jinping’s management of the world’s second-largest economy in a private chat group, according to people familiar with the matter.
The investigation of Zhu Hengpeng, who for the past decade was deputy director of the Institute of Economics at the state-run Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, comes as the Communist Party ramps up efforts to suppress negative commentary about China’s economic health.
Beijing has struggled to revitalize a sluggish economy weighed down by a real estate slump and tepid sentiment among consumers and businesses—weaknesses that, some economists say, have been exacerbated by Xi’s efforts to boost the state sector, rein in what he considers capitalistic excess, and protect China against perceived foreign threats.
Under Xi, the party has directed a far-reaching clampdown on dissent that has punished critics of his leadership inside the party and beyond, with some high-profile targets, including influential business people and academics, getting detained, imprisoned or forced into exile. Authorities have also tightened controls on data, curtailing access to information prized by investors and analysts for insights into China’s economy.
Zhu, who turns 55 this month, was detained in the spring after he allegedly made some impolitic remarks in a private group chat on the WeChat mobile-messaging app, according to people familiar with the matter.
His remarks included comments about China’s flagging economy and veiled criticism of Xi that referred to his mortality, one of the people said.
It couldn’t be determined which alleged offenses were the focus of the investigation. Zhu has since been removed from his positions at the CASS Institute of Economics, where he was also deputy party secretary. Also, his name has disappeared from the online list of personnel at a think tank affiliated with Beijing’s prestigious Tsinghua University.
CASS, a ministerial-level think tank directly subordinate to the State Council, as China’s cabinet is known, advises the party and government leadership on policymaking.
Zhu worked for more than two decades at the think tank, where he specialized in health economics, advising the government on policies related to hospital overhauls and access to medical care, and became an influential commentator on such issues. He was named deputy director of the CASS Institute of Economics in 2014.
He also served as an independent director at China Meheco Group, a state-owned pharmaceutical firm, from 2013 to 2015, according to corporate disclosures.
The status of the investigation of Zhu couldn’t be determined and it wasn’t clear whether he had legal representation. He didn’t respond to emailed requests for comment. No one answered the door at a Beijing apartment listed as his address on a Hong Kong corporate filing.
The State Council Information Office, which handles media queries for the Chinese government, didn’t respond to a request to relay questions to the Communist Party’s top disciplinary agency.
The probe coincided with an indoctrination campaign for CASS staff, aimed at enforcing compliance with Communist Party rules. Party members in leadership roles were required to sign formal pledges on instilling discipline and reminded to obey the “10 prohibitions," a list of banned activities that includes publishing improper material and traveling abroad without approval.
CASS President Gao Xiang, a senior historian seen as a Xi loyalist, personally led the planning and execution of the campaign, according to a report published by the academy. Officials should be “fearful in their hearts, careful with their words, and restrained in their actions," Gao told an indoctrination session in June, the report said.
Zhu’s last known public appearance was in late April, when he spoke at an elder-care-industry conference organized by the Caixin financial news magazine. He suggested that China could plug funding gaps in its pension system by having young Chinese pay into their parents’ pensions and issuing more government bonds, as long as people remain confident in the economy, the magazine said.
The remarks reported in Caixin caused a stir on social media, where some users said the idea would increase the burden on younger Chinese already squeezed by rising living costs and tepid job prospects.
Zhu was scheduled to speak at a May 25 conference arranged by Tsinghua University’s Center for Industrial Development and Environmental Governance, or CIDEG, where he was a member of its academic committee, according to a program issued before the event.
However, the center’s report after the conference didn’t mention Zhu, either as a speaker or an attendee. His name didn’t appear on a list of participants and his speaking slot was filled by another academic, according to people familiar with the conference.
Zhu’s name has disappeared from the CASS Institute of Economics’ online directory of its top officials, as well as the online membership list of Tsinghua CIDEG’s academic committee.
It couldn’t be determined precisely when these mentions were removed. Zhu had joined the CIDEG academic committee in December 2022, and such appointments are typically open-ended, according to a person with knowledge of the matter.
CASS and CIDEG didn’t respond to requests for comment.
In August, CASS administrators shuffled the leadership at its Institute of Economics, replacing its party secretary and director while appointing a new deputy director, according to an official notice. CASS didn’t issue any notice on changes to Zhu’s status.
The new party secretary, Gong Yun, is a specialist in politics and ideology, having trained as a historian and written books about Mao Zedong. He arrived after a short stint at CASS’s Institute of Finance and Banking, where he had been named party secretary and deputy director just over a year earlier, in June 2023.
The new director, Li Xuesong, is an economist who previously headed CASS’s Institute of Quantitative and Technological Economics. He is also a member of China’s largely rubber-stamp legislature.
Weeks after the appointments, Gao led a meeting with senior CASS officials to sum up the achievements of the indoctrination campaign. “Studying party discipline is a process of forging party spirit and unifying thought," said a CASS report on the meeting. The academy, it said, must “strive to build an ironclad army of theoreticians and academics that is loyal and reliable."
Write to Chun Han Wong at chunhan.wong@wsj.com and Lingling Wei at Lingling.Wei@wsj.com
