The sinister disappearance of China’s bosses

中国老板们的神秘失踪

Economist

2025-10-09

9 分钟
PDF

单集文稿 ...

  • Until recently Yu Faxin was best known as a leading scientist and entrepreneur,

  • specialising in advanced semiconductors for military applications.

  • But on September 22nd he made headlines for another reason.

  • His company, Shanghai-listed Great Microwave Technology,

  • disclosed that Mr Yu had been taken away by China's anti-corruption agency.

  • Mr Yu is in liuzhi, an extra-judicial form of detention in which increasing numbers of Chinese businessmen are being snared.

  • The country's entrepreneurs must contend with a lengthening list of worries.

  • Foremost is the economy, which has never fully recovered from the pandemic.

  • Consumer sentiment is tepid at best; overproduction and ruthless competition are rife.

  • Retail sales have shrivelled.

  • The number of lossmaking industrial firms has been hovering at a record high.

  • But a further set of concerns is growing in prominence.

  • As the economic outlook darkens, China's institutional shortcomings are making the business elite even more miserable.

  • Official investigations into company leaders are on the rise.

  • So are court rulings that limit their freedom to travel around the country.

  • A spate of suicides among bosses this year is widely seen as evidence of intensifying pressure.

  • Liuzhi detentions are perhaps the clearest source of unease.

  • When the system was created in 2018 it was aimed mainly at Communist Party members and government officials,

  • part of the anti-corruption crackdown begun by Xi Jinping, China's supreme leader, five years earlier.

  • It is now frequently directed at businesspeople too.