China has called for an investigation into the death of a Chinese researcher at the University of Michigan following “hostile questioning” by US authorities last month. Danhao Wang, an assistant research scientist in the university’s electrical and computer engineering department, died on March 20 after reportedly falling from a campus building.
US authorities said they were investigating the death as a “possible act of self-harm”, meaning suicide, as per the Michigan Daily. Wang had reportedly been questioned by US law enforcement about his research shortly before his death.
China’s ministry of foreign affairs described the interaction as “hostile.”
Who was Danhao Wang?
Danhao Wang was an electrical and computer engineering research assistant at the University of Michigan. On LinkedIn, he listed himself as a postdoctoral research fellow who had been at the university since August 2022.
Before that, Wang spent nearly five years at the University of Science and Technology of China. He earned a PhD in electrical and electronics engineering.
Wang’s work appeared 112 times in publications, according to ResearchGate.
He focused on electrical engineering, materials science, chemistry and photonics. His work involved studying and developing semiconductor materials, especially III-nitride thin films and nanostructures, which are used in advanced electronic and light-based devices, as per the platform.
What China said
Wang died by suicide, Liu Pengyu, a spokesman for China’s embassy in Washington, told the South China Morning Post in an email on Monday.
China’s foreign ministry said it was “deeply saddened by the heartbreaking death”.
In a follow-up statement on March 30, China’s consulate in Chicago said the Chinese scholar took his life “the day after being questioned by US law enforcement”.
“For some time now, the US has overstretched the concept of national security for political manipulation and groundlessly interrogated and harassed Chinese scholars and students,” spokesperson Lin Jian said, adding that Beijing had “protested to the US.”
“These moves infringe on Chinese citizens’ legitimate and lawful rights and interests, poison the atmosphere of people-to-people and cultural exchanges between China and the US and create a serious chilling effect,” the spokesperson said.
“China calls on the US to carry out a full investigation… stop any discriminatory law enforcement targeting Chinese scholars and students in the US, and stop imposing wrongful convictions,” the statement read.
US response
US authorities have not confirmed whether Wang was under investigation.
The FBI told Fox News that it followed a longstanding policy of neither confirming nor denying “the existence of any investigation or investigative activity involving specific individuals”.
Wang’s death follows a previous case in which Chinese researchers at the University of Michigan were arrested over alleged smuggling of biological materials into the US. The charges were later withdrawn.
