In the period from September 13 to October 1, 2026, within 19 days, at least five middle-aged professors in mainland China passed away, aged between 50 and 60, and all were members of the Chinese Communist Party.
According to reports from The Paper, Chinese Communist Party member and professor at Changzhou University, and supervisor of master’s students, Chu Kaibin passed away on October 1, 2026, in Changzhou due to illness, at the age of only 51. Chu Kaibin, born in June 1975 in Rugao, Jiangsu, served as the head of the Department of Electronic Information Engineering at the College of Information Mathematics of Changzhou University and vice dean of the Robotics Industry College.
In another report, Chinese Communist Party member and vice president, chief physician, medical doctor, and supervisor of master’s students at Mindong Hospital, Fujian, Zheng Jianmin, passed away unexpectedly at his home in the early hours of September 29, 2026, and succumbed at 6 a.m. at the age of 54. Zheng Jianmin was a well-known expert in neurology and cerebrovascular intervention in the Mindong region and was selected as a leading innovative talent in Ningde City.
Chinese Communist Party member, former dean and professor of the College of Education at Hainan Normal University, Zhang Dewei, passed away in Haikou on September 25, 2026, at the age of 60. Zhang Dewei, born in March 1966, had served as the director of the Institute of International and Comparative Education at Northeast Normal University, deputy director of the National Basic Education Experimental Center, dean of the College of Education at Hainan Normal University, director of the Comparative Education Branch of the China Education Society, and director of the Hainan Provincial Education Society.
Chinese Communist Party member, professor at the School of English at Shanghai International Studies University, and supervisor of doctoral students, Yang Chunlei, passed away on September 15, 2026, at the age of 50 due to a sudden illness. Yang Chunlei, born in April 1976 in Pingyi, Shandong, graduated in 1998 from Qufu Normal University with a major in English education in the Department of Foreign Languages, and later received his master’s and doctoral degrees from Shanghai International Studies University, where he stayed on as a faculty member.
Chinese Communist Party member, professor and deputy dean of the Institute for Rural Revitalization Studies at Hunan Normal University, Lu Fuxing, passed away on September 13, 2026, at the age of 57 due to treatment failure. Lu Fuxing, born on September 19, 1968, in Xinhua, Hunan, held a doctorate in agriculture. He had served as the assistant director of the Institute of Sociology at the Hunan Academy of Social Sciences, vice secretary of the New Rural Research Center of Hunan Academy of Social Sciences, director of the Rural Development Institute of Hunan Province, and the first chairman and legal representative of the Hunan Rural Revitalization Research Association.
Recent figures from Epoch Times showed that from mid-July to mid-August 2026, in less than a month, at least seven middle-aged and young professors in mainland China passed away due to illness, with at least five of them being members of the Chinese Communist Party, including Lin Shaojiang, deputy secretary of the party committee of the School of Artificial Intelligence at Chengdu Information Engineering University at the age of 41, and Liu Haiming, professor at Shandong University of Finance and Economics at the age of 38.
From June to early July 2026, over ten middle-aged and young university professors and company executives in mainland China passed away, including Sun Fanglin, a 58-year-old professor and dean of the Translational Medicine Institute at Tongji University, and Xue Yanhua, a 37-year-old associate professor at the Law School of Suzhou University.