Military
China’s military pays tribute to AI war games ‘pioneer’ Feng Yanghe
- Mid-ranking officer given funeral at Babaoshan cemetery in the capital two weeks after his death
- Feng, 38, was a leader in the technology behind battle simulations used by the Chinese armed forces
Colonel Feng Yanghe, one of the driving forces behind the AI software used in the country’s military simulations, died in Beijing early on July 1 on the way to “a major mission”, according to profiles posted online. He was 38.
The profiles did not specify a cause of death.
Feng’s funeral committee said the ceremony was held at Babaoshan on Saturday morning, indicating he would be interred at the cemetery as a military “martyr” who died in the line of duty.
It is very unusual for a mid-ranking officer to be granted such status but Zhou Chenming, a researcher with the Beijing-based Yuan Wang military science and technology think tank, said it appeared to be in recognition of Feng’s contribution to AI in the military.
Zhou said Feng was a pioneer in the field and the technology was now widely applied in Chinese war games.
“He died so young – it’s a big loss to the People’s Liberation Army,” Zhou said.
Feng was an associate professor at the National University of Defence Technology (NUDT) in Changsha, Hunan province, and led the teams behind the development of the “War Skull I” and “War Skull II” AI programs used by the PLA to simulate joint operation military war games, according to the university.
The programs took the top prizes in China’s military simulation competitions from 2019 to 2021, NUDT reported earlier.
Born in Pingliang in the northwestern province of Gansu, Feng was recruited by NUDT in 2003 when he was only 18.
NUDT said he studied statistics at Harvard University and high-performance computing at the University of Iowa as part of a “joint training programme” from 2011 to 2013.
He returned to NUDT and completed his doctorate in 2014, staying on to teach, do research and be a doctoral supervisor.
NUDT said Feng published more than 60 papers and took charge of more than 30 national and provincial scientific research projects over the past decade.
A military insider, who declined to be named, said Feng was killed in a traffic accident when the taxi he was in hit a truck.
“He took a night flight from his workplace in Changsha to Beijing after receiving a call for an important mission,” the insider said.
“He called a taxi through a ride-hailing app as usual. Unfortunately, a fatigued taxi driver picked him up and hit a trucker who was also working overtime.”
The source said there was a lot of discussion online about why transport was not arranged for mid-ranking military officers carrying out major tasks.
In the PLA, only senior officers with the rank of major general or above are entitled to have private service cars and personal assistants.
