China confirms death of hypersonic weapon expert Fang Daining, 68, in South Africa
The Chinese Academy of Sciences has announced Fang’s death, confirming an SCMP report in March
Fang, who held China’s highest academic title in science and technology as a CAS member, died of an illness on February 27, the premier national research institution said. He was 68.
Fang was scheduled to speak at the African Conference on Computational Mechanics at the University of Cape Town that afternoon, according to the event programme.
Online discussions earlier included claims that Fang had suffered an unexpected medical episode during a work trip to South Africa. The obituary did not provide any details on the cause or circumstances of his death.
In its obituary, CAS described Fang as a comrade who had “long been devoted to research in advanced materials and structural mechanics” and a pioneer “in China’s field of advanced structural technologies”.