A top economist has joined the growing list of China’s elite to have disappeared from public life after criticizing Xi Jinping, according to The Wall Street Journal. 

Zhu Hengpeng served as deputy director of the Institute of Economics at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS) for around a decade.

CASS is a state research think tank that reports directly to China’s cabinet. Chen Daoyin, a former associate professor at Shanghai University of Political Science and Law, described it as a “body to formulate party ideology to support the leadership.”

According to the Journal, the 55-year-old disappeared shortly after remarking on China’s sluggish economy and criticizing Xi’s leadership in a private group on WeChat.

  • OBJECTION!@lemmy.ml
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    4 hours ago

    That’s me.

    I find it pretty convenient how you can so distinctly remember me praising something, but you can’t remember anything else about that conversation that would allow you to find it in the search function. Are you sure we can rely on your memory? Because I don’t remember ever saying that and I’m pretty sure I would.

    Was this the same conversation where you were praising the Holocaust? I can’t provide any evidence that that happened because I don’t feel like wandering through your comment history, but I have a vague memory of you saying something like that, so I guess if vague memories are the standard of evidence we’re relying on, you’re looking pretty bad too.

    • barsquid@lemmy.world
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      3 hours ago

      Oh, we can solve that. I’ll state for the record right now that the Holocaust is evil, rather than allow you to continue lying about that.

      Will you say the same right now about China’s treatment of the Uyghurs?

      • OBJECTION!@lemmy.ml
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        3 hours ago

        I will say right now that no genocide is praiseworthy, and that I have never praised any genocide in my life.

        • barsquid@lemmy.world
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          3 hours ago

          Right, you won’t. You will prevaricate. You deny the China is doing anything to the Uyghur people, which is your form of supporting it. Thank you for proving me correct.

          • OBJECTION!@lemmy.ml
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            3 hours ago

            TIL all this time that I was calling myself an Atheist, I was actually praising God.

            • barsquid@lemmy.world
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              3 hours ago

              Might as well. You already praise a “socialist” China that objectively doesn’t exist. AFAICT that religion you’ve subscribed to is the main reason you are denying the human rights abuses they are committing.

              • OBJECTION!@lemmy.ml
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                3 hours ago

                As I already said, I have no interest in explaining my positions or reasons to someone who is a blatant liar who I know is acting in bad faith and looking to twist around everything I say.

                • barsquid@lemmy.world
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                  3 hours ago

                  Yet here you were, a blatant liar, acting in bad faith, screeching and howling that I didn’t bring you a link to your own support of Uyghur genocide. You should practice what you preach.