Top Chinese Nuclear Power Expert Commits Suicide

A top Chinese nuclear power expert and also a high-ranking Chinese Communist Party (CCP) official committed suicide for unknown reasons in northeastern China’s Heilongjiang province, based on a variety of outlet reports.

On June 17, Zhang Zhijian, male, 58, professor of nuclear power at the Harbin Engineering University (HEU), jumped off of an office building and killed himself, according to an official notice released by his employer. The announcement said local police declared they had ruled out the likelihood of murder after investigating the scene. However, it did not mention any possible cause of death.

Zhang had two other conspicuous titles before his death: the deputy principal of the university and a member of its CCP standing committee.

Public data shows Zhang held a string of important academic and administrative offices related to his expertise, including head of the HEU’s College of Nuclear Science and Technology; director of the Nuclear Power Simulation Research Center (NPSRC), one of China’s key national defense labs; chief of the Office of Development and Planning; and an executive director of the Chinese Nuclear Society.

The HEU is an academy with strong ties to the Chinese military.

Historically, it was the predecessor of the PLA (People’s Liberation Army) Military Institute of Engineering, which was founded with technical support from the former Soviet Union in 1953. Currently, it is attached to China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the predecessor of China’s Commission for Science, Technology, and Industry for National Defense.

Additionally, the HEU is sanctioned by the U.S. Department of Commerce. It was listed on the Entity List on May 23, 2020, for its involvement in military activities and weapons of mass destruction. Organizations on the list will need a license from the Department of Commerce to purchase U.S. technology.

For months there have been reports of suicides among CCP officials.

Li Xiaoqiu, deputy director of the Culture and Tourism Department of northwestern China’s Inner Mongolia region, hung himself in a library in Hohhot city, the capital of the region, on May 17, according to China’s state media. He was also a member of the department’s Party Leadership Group. He had left a suicide note, but local authorities have not disclosed the content.

Gao Guoliang, deputy director of the Yanshi Public Security Bureau, Luoyang city, central China’s Henan province, killed himself allegedly “in an extreme manner” in his office on May 13, according to local authorities. They did not specify what the manner was.

Ma Hui, director of the command center of the Heping District Public Security Bureau, Tianjin city, jumped from the top of the 27-storey Seton Center and ended his life, on April 30.

My brother spent five years in China as a program manager for the engineering of a manufacturing facility for a multinational project. He said Chinese engineers can often do calculus in their head, can remember rote processes to follow in exquisite detail, but often don’t know how to address an engineering problem, how to figure out the actual problem that you apply the math and science to solve. No imagination, no creativity.

He said he’d rather have a class of bright American high schoolers to work with than Chinese engineers. You can teach a bright, inquisitive kid the math and science, but you can’t teach someone whose creativity is stifled the “steps to be creative.”

As well, Chinese society is overwhelmed with total corruption. It’s so complete, they don’t even recognize it as such. Everyone is so caught up in following the dictates of the corrupt system, there is little room left for true innovation or original thought.

Those are a few of their problems.

And they are trying to graft that culture onto us.

Chinese culture traditionally does not tolerate deviations from accepted paths, mistakes or failures. Combine that with a rigid top to down control structure and there simply is no incentive and in fact much risk with innovation. During the Korean War, the Chinese took horrendous casualities. Once a plan was made and attack started the junior and mid level officers in the field would almost never deviate from a plan despite the reality of the situation. In fact they faced criticism and dicipline if an objective was not achieved regardless of losses. It was thought that Mao mimicked Stalin’s famous order of “Not one step back” and the commissars enforced it.

Hopefully there won’t be another war. However do not believe that the PLA will do as well as their numbers and equipment would suggest if one were to happen. Also due to their rigidity, their industry and technology is often a step behind the West and the Chinese squander immense amounts of capital to compensate.

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