China’s Top Scientific Institutions Decimated by COVID Deaths

Distinguished careers were often marred by persecution

Medical workers arrive with a patient at a fever clinic in Beijing, China, on Dec. 9, 2022. Kevin Frayer/Getty Images

As China reels from a major outbreak of COVID-19 following the lifting of zero-COVID policies in early December, the growing list of obituaries reads like a who’s who of Chinese scientists.

Fifteen academicians from the Chinese Academy of Engineering (CAE) passed away from Dec. 15 to 28, most of them members of the CCP. From Dec. 21 to 25, six academicians from the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) passed away. In addition, on Dec. 29, the Chinese news website Sina reported that China’s “missile expert” Li Junlong had died of COVID-19, at the age of 58. Li was the chief technical officer of a missile model at China’s Second Academy of Aerospace Science.