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Ling Xin

Fang Daining, a key scientist in China’s hypersonic weapons programme, has died at the age of 68, according to an image of an obituary notice that began circulating on Chinese social media last week.
Early online discussions included claims that Fang, who was also a Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) member, the country’s highest academic title in science and technology, suffered an unexpected medical episode during a work trip to South Africa.
The South China Morning Post could not confirm the online claims.
Some social media users said they were told not to photograph the obituary, a claim the SCMP was also unable to verify.
Fang, who studied super-strong materials for spacecraft and advanced engines at Beijing Institute of Technology (BIT), a key defence research university, “died of illness on February 27”, the obituary said.
“Fang’s passing is a major loss to China’s mechanics community, the field of advanced materials and structures, and higher education. We mourn his death with deep sorrow.”
The notice appeared to have been posted on a whiteboard at the university’s Institute of Advanced Structure Technology, which Fang helped to establish in 2015.

Fang drew public attention in 2022 after a video of a young woman repeatedly kissing his face during a live-streamed academic meeting went viral, later prompting disciplinary action by his university and CAS.
Posts discussing Fang’s death have been removed from Chinese social media platforms. The SCMP has not been able to independently verify the circumstances of his death. The university has been approached for comment.
Fang was born in 1958 in Nanchang, in the central province of Jiangxi. He studied mechanical engineering at Nanjing Tech University in the 1980s before earning a PhD in aerospace engineering from the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology in 1993.
After returning to China, Fang worked at Tsinghua University and Peking University before joining BIT in 2015.
His research focused on how materials behave under extreme heat, testing their mechanical properties, and developing theories and computer models to design structures that can survive such conditions.
Fang independently developed a series of ultra-high-temperature testing instruments that became key platforms for the country’s aerospace industry, according to his BIT faculty page.
Much of Fang’s research could be applied to technologies such as hypersonic vehicles and rocket motors, it said.




Fang received numerous honours for his work, including multiple National Natural Science Awards – one of China’s highest scientific honours. He was elected a foreign member of the US National Academy of Engineering in 2022.
Months later, the on-screen kiss prompted an official investigation. BIT’s report into the incident described Fang’s behaviour as “improper conduct that caused serious negative impact”.
The university removed him from several senior academic posts and suspended him from recruiting graduate students.
CAS also stripped Fang of some privileges as an academician, including the right to attend meetings and nominate or vote for new members. He was also barred from holding leadership roles within the academy.
Fang continued his research after the incident but rarely appeared in public.
Last year, for instance, he co-authored a paper in the journal Nature that described tiny sensors embedded in lithium-ion batteries to detect internal damage – a technology that could address one of the biggest challenges facing electric vehicles and large-scale energy storage.
Neither BIT nor the academy has issued a public announcement regarding Fang’s death, and his personal pages remain accessible on their websites.
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The distinguished academic continued working after he was disgraced by a kissing scandal but rarely appeared in public


The distinguished academic continued working after he was disgraced by a kissing scandal but rarely appeared in public.


Chinese Academy of Social Sciences

Beijing Institute of Technology (BIT)

Controversy haunts likely death of China’s hypersonic weapons expert Fang Daining

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}The distinguished academic continued working after he was disgraced by a kissing scandal but rarely appeared in public

The distinguished academic continued working after he was disgraced by a kissing scandal but rarely appeared in public