China Economic News: China’s most outspoken economist Gao Shanwen dies at the age of 55, had openly challenged the government claims of Chinese GDP

Now another big name has been added to the list of celebrities who raised their voice against China’s Communist government and its policies, disappearing or dying under suspicious circumstances. Gao Shanwen, a 55-year-old veteran macro-economist who had very outspoken and independent opinions on China’s economy and capital market, has passed away. According to Chinese government media ‘Shanghai Securities News’, his death was due to a serious disease (cancer). However, considering the history of people raising anti-government voices in China, many discussions have intensified on social media regarding this death. The Chinese government’s claims of 5% GDP were shot down. Gao Shanwen was one of China’s most influential and famous institutional economists. He served as the former chief economist of ‘SDIC Securities’, a government-controlled investment group. Gao first came into international limelight in late 2024 when he directly challenged Beijing at a forum at the Peterson Institute for International Economics in Washington. Questioning the official figures, he said that China’s actual average GDP growth between 2021 and 2023 would have been only around 2 percent, while the Chinese government has been exaggerating it to 5 percent (about 10% cumulative difference). Had opened front on youth unemployment, said- ‘Youth are lifeless’ To prove his claims, Gao had exposed huge manipulation in the data of China’s employment, domestic consumption and deep real estate crisis. He had made a controversial comment expressing deep concern over the record breaking unemployment of youth in the country. He said that in today’s China "The elderly are full of energy and are dancing in public places, while the youth of the country have become lifeless and are forced to sit in the dark and eat noodles due to the decline in their earnings." His statement had blasted the narrative of the Xi Jinping government, which was claiming that China’s economy was improving rapidly after the pandemic due to the consumption of the youth. Ban imposed after the statement, even had to lose job. The Chinese government did not like this way of publicly challenging Beijing’s official economic data. Right after this statement, the Chinese administration took strict action against him. Gao Shanwen’s public speaking and media interviews were completely banned. Their social media accounts, blogs, videos, and articles were completely censored or deleted from the Chinese Internet. The ‘Securities Association of China’ gave him strict instructions to promote only positive policies of the government. After this, at the end of the year 2025, he was also dismissed from his job and his Hong Kong investment advisor license was also cancelled. End of another Chinese face who spoke the truth: Many human rights activists and thinkers in China like Liu Xiaobo and Li Wangyang have died under mysterious circumstances before. People are paying tribute to Gao Shanwen with tearful eyes on Chinese social media platforms ‘Weibo’ and ‘Xiaohongshu’. Despite China’s strict censorship, one user wrote, "The last economist who spoke the truth in China is also gone, now only ‘optimistic’ sycophants are left who praise the government falsely."