China Wastes Hundreds of Billions on Hypersonic Weapons! Xi Furious, Experts Made Him Look Foolish

An academician at the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the keeper of the most critical materials for hypersonic weapons died in South Africa 80 days ago, yet Chinese authorities remain silent. Here was Feng Dai Ning, a leading figure in China's materials and structural mechanics research, who controlled the core technology ensuring that the Chinese space capsule and hypersonic missiles withstand extreme temperatures without disintegrating or carbonizing. On February 27, at the age of 68, Feng collapsed during an international academic conference in Cape Town, South Africa. The event was the 7th African Conference on Computational Mechanics, held at the University of Cape Town from February 25 to 27. Feng delivered a session report on the afternoon of February 27. However, the conference website carried no announcement of his death, a sharp departure from standard international academic protocol. Even more unusual, papers under Feng's name continued to be published in March 2026 after his passing. Normally, a scientist of Feng's stature, credited with significant contributions to China's defense capabilities, would be honored immediately with an official obituary, a memorial committee, and even flags at half-mast, yet the result was complete silence. The first report came from Hong Kong's South China Morning Post. On March 16, a paper obituary quietly appeared on a blackboard at the Institute of Advanced Structural Technology at the Beijing Institute of Technology. Within two days, the photo circulated on Chinese social media. On the morning of March 18, South China Morning Post reporter Lin Xin, reported from Ohio, read a headline noting the controversy surrounding the possible death of Chinese hypersonic weapons expert Feng Daiming. At the time, university security and party officials monitored every student and faculty member passing by that corner, shouting no photos, delete any taken immediately. Why restrict photos of an academician's obituary? It was not until May 19, 80 days later, that the Chinese Academy of Scientists quietly updated Feng's profile in The notice was a brief block of text, under 50 characters, revealing nothing about when, where, or how he died. Why the long delay in publishing an obituary? Simply put, senior officials argued for weeks over how to write this 50-character notice. CCP leader Xi Jinping reportedly poured substantial military funding into the country's hypersonic weapons program, entrusting the project to top scientist Feng Daiming. Feng was expected to use the funds to acquire the highest quality raw materials. However, according to sources, he and a network of subcontractors and military-industrial stakeholders allegedly diverted much of the budget, spending only about 20 percent on actual materials and keeping the remaining 80 percent abroad. Carefully staged photos and videos were used to create an impression of progress. The deception came under scrutiny in a January 6, 2024 report by Bloomberg journalist Peter Martin, citing US intelligence assessments. The report indicated that the missiles contained water instead of fuel, and missile silos in western China were so poorly maintained that covers could not be opened, rendering launches ineffective. Following the report, Xi Jinping reportedly demanded that the rocket force conduct live-fire exercises to test the missile's resistance to interference and high-temperature re-entry. Several missiles, however, deviated by hundreds of kilometers or disintegrated mid-air due to thermal shield failure and cracked radar transparent windows. Investigators in Zhongnanhai traced the failures back to Beijing Institute of Technology's hypersonic testing system, overseen by Feng Daiming. As the custodian of critical physical parameters for China's hypersonic weapons, Feng was in a position to expose potentially high-level military-industrial corruption. Unexpectedly, Feng died abroad, leaving subordinates in panic. Without his oversight, falsified reports could no longer be maintained. Authorities reportedly delayed pushing any obituary because doing so would officially credit Feng with completing the hypersonic missile program. A laudatory notice could have prompted leadership to release the remaining funds and conduct further tests, risking exposure of financial mismanagement. Conversely, a vague or ambiguous notice could be interpreted as shifting blame onto the deceased, creating anxiety among those involved in the project. For three months following Feng's death, it is reported that officials within Zhongnanhai, the military, and Feng's family debated over how to handle the account and craft an obituary that would neither raise suspicion nor provoke backlash from corrupt officials. This prolonged delay in announcing Feng's death reflects the sensitivity surrounding both the hypersonic weapons program and the management of its significant military funding, exposing allegations in the hypersonic testing system project. In China's mechanics research community, Feng Daiming was a highly influential figure. After returning from the Technion in Israel, he taught at Tsinghua University and Peking University, and eventually, with full support from both academia and the military, he effectively built the Institute of Advanced Structural Technology at Beijing Institute of Technology. At the core of his influence, and the source of tens of millions of yuan in state research funding, was what he called the first domestic 1,800°C aerobic materials mechanics testing system, developed under the major scientific development project of the National Natural Science Foundation. The project received 10.56 million yuan in funding. However, the official project's lead was not Feng himself, but his deputy Li Weiguo. Feng's title was only chief. Even the Institute's website lists the project simply as chief of major instrument projects, omitting the funding amount, project number, and year of establishment. For a core military development claimed to fill a domestic gap, the publicly disclosed details were minimal. Some online commentators even claim that without Feng's testing system, China's hypersonic vehicles and space capsules could not reach the sky, but closer examination raises serious questions. At speeds of Mach 10 to Mach 8, hypersonic vehicles endure extreme heat, with nose cones and leading edges exceeding 2,000 to 3,000°C. Ordinary steel melts at 1,500°C. Determining whether shell materials can withstand such extremes requires precise ground-based testing, Feng's stated purpose. Feng's system claimed to test how to grip materials at 2,000°C without melting. He later developed a 2,300°C inert environment system and a 1,600°C broad-brain radar transparent testing system. This last system was designed specifically to test missile nose cone radar domes, the transparent windows critical to radar operation, a failure here would blind missiles in stealth conditions. Despite appearances, experts note that the system was essentially a high-temperature electric furnace with hydraulic stretching equipment. In real Mach 10 flights, materials face fast-moving plasma, aerodynamic shock shear, and active oxygen ions generated by air molecule ionization, conditions the system could not replicate. Tests involved heating small material samples quietly to 1,800°C and pulling them with clamps, producing smooth stress-strain curves on computer screens. These static results were then published and celebrated as filling a domestic gap in China's high-temperature materials research. This claim is misleading. As early as 2014, the Chinese Academy of Sciences' Institute of Metal Research had achieved similar testing at 2,800°C. Feng's 1,800°C system lagged nearly a decade behind. Even in a 2022 co-authored review by Feng and Li Weiguo, terms like dynamic airflow, black shield, and ionized oxygen, critical to hypersonic testing, were conspicuously absent. The system's limitations were understated while online commentators exaggerated its significance. Nevertheless, the data from this lab-based system became the foundational reference for the design of key missile models, including the Dongfeng-17 and Dongfeng-27, under China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation, China Aerospace Science and Industry Corporation, and the Rocket Force. Experts warn this represents a form of self-deception within closed-door development. Moreover, within China's academic hierarchy, Feng's testing system held near-absolute authority in military materials research. He enjoyed strong institutional backing, tracing back to his mentor Huang Kezhu, a leading figure in mechanics. Strictly speaking, Feng Daining was not Huang Kezhu's PhD student. He completed his doctorate from 1989 to 1993 at the Technion in Israel, and after his post-doctoral work, spent some time at Tel Aviv University. Huang personally recruited Feng from abroad in 1992, and Feng spent 14 years at Tsinghua University. Huang's influence was profound. He trained six Chinese Academy of Sciences academicians, including Feng. During the five years when Yang Wei, another of Huang's proteges, chaired the National Natural Science Foundation, Feng's 10.6 million yuan instrument project was established, illustrating the concentration of both academic authority and research funding among a small network of elite scientists. When Feng Daining first returned to China, he did not have the qualification to supervise PhD students. Huang Kezhu reportedly assigned some of his own doctoral students to Feng. Later, Feng used the same approach to cultivate his own proteges. This relay-style academic succession allowed their faction to monopolize the review authority for China's high-temperature materials testing. As a result, any military factory or private supplier in China seeking to develop high-temperature heat shield materials for missiles or apply for state defense funding had to attain a passing test report from Feng Daining's laboratory. Among Feng's trainees, one of the most prominent is Gao Xu, who earned his PhD under Feng in 2010 and is now the deputy chief designer of the Shenzhou-12 spacecraft. From Huang Kezhu to Feng Daining to Gao Xu, three generations of mentor-student relationships directly connected China's core manned space equipment, a clear example of what has been called the academic faction industrial chain. The influence of a single academician extends across this entire network. Within China's academic and defense industries, authority over high-tech testing had reportedly become a gate for exchanges of power, money, and sexual favors. Feng allegedly used his instruments and data to create a large network of vested interests. He reportedly issued passes to substandard materials incapable of functioning under dynamic high-temperature conditions. In return, major defense contractors and private company executives provided him with money and access to women. This context underlies the 2022 kissing scandal. During a video conference, a young woman suddenly appeared on camera kissing the face of 64-year-old Feng Daining. Beijing Institute of Technology later claimed she was not a postdoc at the university, but an employee of a private company. Overseas Chinese media later identified her as Li Liming, indeed a postdoctoral researcher at BIT's Institute of Advanced Structural Technology, part of Feng's own lab. The university's statement, therefore, was misleading. Reports suggest that the private company she worked for relied on Feng's high-temperature testing system to produce passing data. In order to secure multimillion yuan contracts from China's Defense Science and Technology Bureau and the rocket force. Vanishing Academicians and the Trillion Yuan Hole The alleged irregularities in Feng Daining's high-temperature mechanics testing system may represent only the tip of the iceberg. Over the past three years, more than a dozen academicians with military-industrial backgrounds have fallen from grace, were dismissed, expelled, or died under mysterious circumstances. Among them are Liu Guozhu, former director of the Science and Technology Commission of the Central Military Commission, Liu Tangli, head of China's Academy of Engineering Physics, known as the Ninth Academy, responsible for nuclear weapons development, and Yang Wei, former vice-general manager of the Aviation Industry Corporation of China, referred to as the father of the J-20. These figures reportedly operated a tightly-knit triad of universities, state defense corporations, and private shell companies, which allegedly misled senior leadership in Zhongnanhai pursuing its military ambitions. Liu Guozhu, once at the top of the military's Commission's Science and Technology Committee, controlled approval for hundreds of billions of yuan in annual defense research funding and served as a key protector within the Tsinghua Bit Academic Network. Under his oversight, projects were launched to develop hypersonic missiles capable of defeating U.S. aircraft carrier defenses and stealth aircraft with advanced low-observable technology. Once the projects were approved and hundreds of millions in funding allocated, senior scientists, including Feng Daining, Yang Wei, and Liu Tangli, reportedly handled the subcontracting of funds. They were fully aware that creating materials able to withstand under Mach 10 dynamic plasma conditions were beyond China's current industrial capability. According to reports, they adopted a low-cost, low-risk method to simulate results, described in Academia as numerical simulation. In air-conditioned, well-lit laboratories like Bit, they would build 3D missile models using expensive imported industrial design software, manually adjusting material parameters in the software backend. Insufficient temperature tolerance? Adjust the code. Parameters not meeting specifications? Modify the formulas. The software would render vibrant, precise 3D stress analysis animations. These animations, along with thick stacks of reports filled with complex equations, were then presented to military officials with limited technical knowledge. Officers reportedly marveled at the perfect flight animations, exclaiming, With data approved, massive defense procurement contracts were signed. This context explains the involvement of private company employees seen in the 2022 kissing scandal. Many of these private firms functioned as so-called white gloves for the academicians and military officials. They allegedly supplied inferior fibers, cheap ceramics, or even civilian-grade stock labeled as military-grade high-temperature materials, which were then assembled into missiles. Reports suggest that of the billions in defense funding, perhaps only 20% was converted into the finished Dongfeng missiles. The remaining 80% was allegedly siphoned through shell companies and false contracts distributed among academicians, generals, and subcontractors, and transferred via underground banking networks to overseas accounts held by their families and associates.