At the age of 55, Gao Shanwen, the former chief economist of Guotou Securities, passed away on July 7th due to illness, sparking a wave of mourning online in mainland China. Four to five hundred people gathered at Babao Mountain to bid him farewell. Many people remembered him for daring to speak the truth, revealing economic realities, and paying the price for being suppressed. However, soon after, there were doubts raised online as mourning articles reposted by mainland media were deleted.
On July 11th, Gao Shanwen’s funeral was organized by the Peking University Alumni Association, among others. The elegiac couplets hung on the gate of the East Memorial Hall read, “Integrity and determination bring peace, carrying on the thousand-year cultural heritage of the Guanzhong region,” and “Worrying about the world for the country and the people, adding brilliance to the centennial glory of the Yan Yuan.” Li Wensheng, the secretary-general of the Peking University Alumni Association, praised Gao Shanwen as a gentleman of integrity, honesty, adherence to principles, and a polite gentleman…
A graduate of Peking University, Gao Shanwen had donated 30 million RMB with alumni to establish a scholarship at Peking University in 2020.
Renowned economist Lin Caiyi recently wrote a eulogy for Gao Shanwen, revealing that as early as 2018, a Chinese Communist Party official publicly criticized Gao Shanwen by name at a meeting on Beijing’s Financial Street, stating, “The leadership has been lenient towards you, instructing us to guide your speech more closely.”
Lin Caiyi wrote, “Now, so much sorrow is flowing in the financial circle. Rather than mourn the departure of Gao Shanwen, it is more like mourning the end of an era where viewpoints could be freely expressed.”
Sina.com once reprinted Lin Caiyi’s article “Silent Sorrow – Lin Caiyi’s Tribute to Gao Shanwen” on the death of Gao Shanwen. However, the article has now been taken down.
Amidst a wave of mourning for Gao Shanwen, discordant voices have also surfaced.
According to Hong Kong’s Ming Pao, this wave of mourning has caused unease in some quarters. Ming Jinwei, a former Xinhua News Agency reporter, posted on his WeChat public account, warning against certain individuals “excessively elevating” Gao Shanwen to propagate “neo-liberalism” and incorrect ideas of “non-cooperation with the government, challenging authority.”
Ming Jinwei claimed that Gao Shanwen, under the guise of “for the country and the people” and “daring to speak the truth,” expressed many erroneous and untenable views. In 2018, Gao Shanwen supposedly said that “people under 30 should just wash up and go to bed,” which was deemed as “surrenderism” towards the U.S. The article also criticized Gao Shanwen for questioning the authenticity of China’s economic data, stating that his statements before his death all revealed a deep-seated mindset of admiring, fearing, and pandering to the US.
Public information shows that Ming Jinwei, born in Hubei’s Zhuxi in 1979, had long worked in the International Department of Xinhua News Agency, serving as a correspondent and later establishing his own self-media. His views align with the so-called “telling China’s story well” approach of the CCP’s external propaganda, as well as countering the narrative dominated by Western media.
Feng Chongyi, an associate professor at the University of Technology in Sydney, told Dajiyuan that the CCP exercises high control over the media and the entire internet. The recent deletion of articles and the release of such unsettling comments by officials or those close to them undoubtedly reflect the regime’s unease, potentially even causing unease for Xi Jinping himself.
Feng Chongyi stated, “Under the rule of the CCP, the society is very peculiar concerning matters related to Xi and the Party. The censorship of speech is severe. Not only can some of your content be deleted, but you may also be summoned. People’s conversations within small circles may be reported by others, resulting in many people within the country choosing to turn a blind eye.”
“Many people are awakening but staying silent. The CCP is well aware that the public is extremely dissatisfied with it. Thus, they are also fearful. Even expressing mourning now makes them uneasy,” he said.
Gao Shanwen had gained considerable attention as early as 2006 for correctly predicting a bull market with his “asset revaluation” proposal and in 2010 for judging that China had passed the Lewis Turning Point.
On December 3, 2024, he publicly stated that after the end of epidemic controls, China’s society could be summarized as having “lively elderly, lifeless youth, and disheartened middle-aged.”
On December 12, 2024, during a speech, Gao Shanwen said, “We cannot know the true growth numbers of China (economy). My personal estimate is that for the past two to three years, the actual average growth rate of (Gross Domestic Product, GDP) may be around 2%, even though the official figures are close to 5%.”
Subsequently, Gao Shanwen’s social media accounts were banned. The Wall Street Journal, in January 2025, quoting insiders, stated that Gao Shanwen’s statements had angered Xi Jinping, leading to an investigation and disciplinary action against Gao Shanwen.
The Wall Street Journal recently disclosed that the specific execution of Xi’s directive to suppress Gao Shanwen was carried out by Cai Qi, the director of the General Office of the Central Committee of the CCP.
Feng Chongyi stated that due to deep-seated contradictions between the CCP and developed countries worldwide, economic difficulties prevail domestically, and Xi Jinping has been continuously lying. Even though everyone knows the Communist Party falsifies data, the extent of falsification revealed by Gao Shanwen must have been very uncomfortable for Xi Jinping. Gao Shanwen was a rare economist in the country who dared to speak the truth.
Feng Chongyi expressed, “After more than a decade of turmoil by Xi Jinping, the Chinese economy is already deeply damaged. He needs to consolidate centralized power within the party, refuses to implement rational policies, and the economy can only deteriorate. People in society hate him, and there is a collective indignation towards him. Now, he can only rely on suppression.”
Official figures released yesterday by the CCP showed that China’s second-quarter economic growth slowed to 4.3%, lower than the 5% growth in the first quarter of this year and below the economists’ estimated 4.5% growth rate. American economist Huang Dawei believes that the CCP’s unprecedented provision of lower-than-expected data, accustomed to embellishing data, has thoroughly shattered the last fantasy of a rebound in the second half of the year.