Former President Zhang Yaoxue of Central South University was expelled from the Communist Party of China (CPC) and dismissed from public office on May 21, 2026. The Chinese Academy of Engineering announced on May 22 that Zhang Yaoxue’s academic title as an academician was revoked. Zhang Yaoxue was investigated in October 2025, with his deputy, Vice President Guo Xueyi of Central South University, falling from grace in December 2025.
Central South University has close ties to the Chinese defense industry system. During Zhang Yaoxue’s tenure as president of Central South University, Xi Jinping, the top leader of the CPC, and Xu Dazhe, then Governor of Hunan Province and a high-ranking military official, inspected the university.
The Chinese Academy of Engineering issued a decision on May 22, 2026, titled “Decision on Revoking the Academician Title of Zhang Yaoxue.” According to the decision, released by the CPC’s Central Commission for Discipline Inspection and the National Supervisory Commission on May 21, Zhang Yaoxue, the former member of the Party committee and president of Central South University, was expelled from the Party and removed from public office for serious violations of discipline and law. In accordance with relevant regulations of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, Zhang Yaoxue’s academician title was revoked as of May 21, 2026.
On May 21, 2026, Zhang Yaoxue was expelled from the Party and handed over to judicial authorities. The official notification stated that Zhang Yaoxue had sought benefits for others and accepted gifts and money in personnel selection, academic title conferment, and honor recognition, fostering academic misconduct and corruption. He had illegally accepted significant sums of money, using his official power to seek profits for others in business operations and job promotions. Zhang Yaoxue retired eight years ago before being investigated in October 2025.
Public records show that Zhang Yaoxue, born in Li County, Changde City, Hunan Province in January 1956, graduated with a bachelor’s degree from Northwestern Telecommunications Engineering Institute (now Xi’an University of Electronic Science and Technology) in 1982. He obtained a Ph.D. in Engineering from Tohoku University in Japan in 1989 and became a professor and doctoral supervisor. In 2007, he was elected as an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering.
During his tenure at Tsinghua University and the Ministry of Education of the CPC, Zhang Yaoxue had interactions with Xi Jinping’s trusted aide and Tsinghua University classmate Chen Xi. Chen Xi served as deputy Party secretary, executive deputy secretary, and secretary of the Party committee at Tsinghua University from 1993 to 2008 before holding various positions at the Ministry of Education of the CPC.
Two months after Zhang Yaoxue’s investigation in 2025, his deputy, Vice President Guo Xueyi of Central South University, was officially announced to have fallen from grace on December 27, 2025. Guo Xueyi had served as director of the Graduate School Admissions Office, director of the Human Resources Department, and vice president of Central South University during Zhang Yaoxue’s presidency.
Central South University, located in Changsha City, Hunan Province, is a key university directly under the Ministry of Education of the CPC and a directly administered institution of the central government.
Central South University is well-known for its expertise in mining and metallurgy, closely linked to the Chinese defense industry system. According to the university’s official website, one of the functions of the Science and Research Department of Central South University is to be responsible for national defense technology projects, defense technology platforms, defense industry quality control, major national scientific and technological projects, defense industry confidentiality, and other related work.
The Aeronautics and Astronautics Institute of Central South University was upgraded to the Aeronautics and Astronautics Technology Research Institute on April 13, 2022, focusing on intelligent design of aerospace vehicles, aerospace intelligent navigation and control, multifunctional integrated intelligent structures, and advanced aerospace propulsion. It conducts research on aircraft design, manufacturing, and applications using the precision manufacturing national key laboratory for extreme service performance.
On November 4, 2013, Xi Jinping, General Secretary of the CPC, visited the National Key Engineering Research Center for Heavy Metal Pollution Prevention at Central South University and the State Key Laboratory of Powder Metallurgy. Zhang Yaoxue, the university’s president at the time, accompanied Xi Jinping during the inspection.
It was reported by the CPC’s official media that the State Key Laboratory of Powder Metallurgy at Central South University primarily focused on basic scientific and innovative technology research in powder metallurgy special materials and lightweight refractory metal materials. The laboratory provided hundreds of special powder metallurgy materials for China’s first atomic bomb and first manned spacecraft, with its aviation brake products successfully applied in large aircraft.
In January 2008, the Ministry of Education of the CPC, the State Defense Science and Industry Commission, and the Hunan Provincial Government jointly decided to build the Aeronautics and Astronautics Institute and the National Defense Science and Technology Research Institute as key units of Central South University to meet the needs of national defense science and technology industry development.
At that time, Zhang Qingwei, a high-ranking official in the aerospace industry, served as the director of the State Defense Science and Industry Commission. Zhang Qingwei succeeded Xu Dazhe as the Secretary of the Hunan Provincial Committee in October 2021 and was subsequently appointed as the Vice Chairman of the Standing Committee of the Fourteenth National People’s Congress in March 2023, rising to the deputy national level. Zhang Qingwei’s term in Hunan lasted less than a year and a half but had close interactions with Central South University.
Both Xu Dazhe and Zhang Qingwei originated from the First Academy of Aerospace Industry (the First Academy), where they worked in the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation and successively led the State Defense Science and Industry Commission. Xu Dazhe became the Governor of Hunan Province in September 2016, then the Secretary of the Hunan Provincial Committee in November 2020, and later moved to a national position in October 2021.
During his five-year tenure in Hunan, Xu Dazhe visited Central South University multiple times for research and gave lectures on ideological and political education. On February 9, 2017, when Xu Dazhe, then Governor of Hunan Province, visited Central South University for research, he was accompanied by Gao Wenbing, the Party Secretary of the university at the time, and President Zhang Yaoxue. On December 12, 2018, Xu Dazhe visited Central South University again, emphasizing the need to advance collaborative innovation in defense science and technology industry development and to establish a service platform and highland for collaborative innovation in defense science and technology.
Xu Dazhe started being absent from meetings of the National People’s Congress Standing Committee by the end of 2024, leading to rumors of his involvement in incidents. On October 28, 2025, Xu Dazhe was stripped of his member of the National People’s Congress qualification, confirming the earlier rumors of his involvement in incidents.
In recent years, the CPC has been intensifying its cleansing operations within the military, extending to the defense industry system. Since 2024, ten academicians with military backgrounds have been removed from the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Chinese Academy of Engineering. Recently, mainland Chinese media revealed that Zhou Chenghu, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and an expert in geographic information systems and remote sensing applications, was taken away for investigation in late April 2026. The Chinese Academy of Sciences has already removed Zhou Chenghu’s name from its list of academicians and taken down his profile information.