April 17, 2026, 10:32 p.m. ET
Ann Arbor — University of Michigan community members and activists gathered on campus Friday evening to pay tribute to a Chinese researcher who killed himself in a UM research hall last month under mysterious and politically charged circumstances.
Most of the attendees of Friday’s vigil did not personally know Danhao Wang, “but we feel that we as a community had a responsibility to mark his passing in a communal way,” said Linda Wan, a UM alum and member of Code Pink, a nationwide women-led peace group that hosted the vigil.
Wang died on March 20. At about 11 p.m. the night before, he fell from an upper level inside the George G. Brown Building, according to the university’s police force, which categorized the incident as a “possible act of self-harm.”
Wang was an electrical and computer engineering researcher at UM studying advanced electronic materials used to build faster, more efficient microchips and next-generation electronic devices.
Officials with the Chinese Consulate in Chicago and the country’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs released statements claiming he took his own life after harassment and hostile interrogation by federal law enforcement about his work with the university.
In addition to a candlelit moment of silence and words of remembrance, Friday’s vigil included a bowing ceremony, a custom at Chinese funerals to show respect, gratitude and to honor the deceased. Attendees were then invited to share an offering at a table set up on the UM Diag, in the heart of campus.
Bob McMurray, a UM graduate and member of the U.S. Peace Council, said hearing about Wang’s death felt like “a gut punch.”
“I took it very personally and I’m very deeply invested in making sure that our guests from the People’s Republic of China are treated very well here at the University of Michigan,” said McMurray, who is Wan’s husband.
McMurray said there will be time for seeking justice, but Friday’s vigil was all about honoring Wang’s loss.
“There is a mom and dad in China who’s mourning the loss of their son,” he said. “There are people here in the university research community who feel his absence.”
Wang had been in the U.S. since 2022, Wan said. In reading a letter from Megan Russell, a Code Pink member who leads the organization’s China is Not Our Enemy campaign, Wan called the late assistant research scientist “one of the most brilliant and promising minds of his generation.”
Chinese officials have called on the U.S. to thoroughly investigate Wang’s death and to “stop any discriminatory law enforcement targeting Chinese students and scholars in the U.S.”
The suicide came amid a crackdown by President Donald Trump’s administration on foreign influence at U.S. universities.
UM in particular has drawn Trump’s ire for misreporting the amount of money it received from the Chinese government. Additionally, at least five university students from China have been charged by federal authorities with smuggling biological material into the U.S. and lying about it.
A few dozen people attended the vigil, including Ames Lim, a fourth-year undergraduate student at UM, who said he’s been following news about the discord between the international researchers and the Trump administration.
“I heard about this man’s death and it was really disheartening and sad to hear,” Lim said. “It’s really important at this time to be in community and to really recognize the humanity of these students and scholars.”
Wan called the incidents “part of an ongoing series of political discrimination against researchers who have devoted their lives to difficult and intensive studies that have the potential to improve the world.”
Steve St. Clair presented three apples at the offering table, which he said were meant to symbolize peace and safety.
St. Clair, a member of the International Youth and Students for Equality organization, was highly critical of the university for what he called its “complicity in the persecution” of the Chinese researchers.
“Danhao Wang’s death is a direct consequence of the university’s complicity in the prosecution and persecution of these five individuals,” involved in the biological matter smuggling incident, St. Clair said.
mreinhart@detroitnews.com
