It’s a strange and unsettling reality that we’re currently seeing a wave of unexplained deaths and disappearances among elite scientists in both the United States and China. According to Newsweek, there have been 11 cases in the U.S. and at least nine in China, involving experts working in sensitive fields like military artificial intelligence, hypersonics, and space defense. This has led many to wonder if we’re witnessing a silent, high-stakes “scientist war.”
The star of China’s booming AI defense sector, Feng Yanghe, is a prime example of these concerning events. A professor at the National University of Defense Technology, Feng was only 38 years old when he died in a car crash in 2023. What’s particularly odd is that state-run media reports described him as having been “sacrificed,” and he was buried in a cemetery reserved for the Communist Party elite and revolutionary martyrs.
