A top economist has disappeared from public view in China after allegedly criticizing communist Xi Jinping’s handling of the national economy on a messaging app, anonymous sources told the Wall Street Journal.
Zhu Hengpeng was the deputy director of a major think tank state-owned company, the Institute of Economics of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, before being detained by authorities and removed from his post. His whereabouts have been unknown since April.
The latest case of a high-ranking leader mysteriously disappearing comes as China, the world’s second-largest economy, struggles with a prolonged slowdown caused by turmoil in the property sector.
The country’s turbulent situation led the communist regime to intensify efforts to suppress any negative commentary about the national economic health.
One of the sources who spoke to the Wall Street Journal said Hengpeng’s comments on the messaging app included statements about China’s failing economy and veiled criticism of Xi that referred to his “mortality.”
The economist spent more than two decades at the think tank, where he specialized in health economics. In that role, he advised the government on policies related to hospital reform and access to health care, becoming an influential commentator on such issues at the national level. He was appointed deputy director in 2014.
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