On Sunday morning, Chinese ambassador to Israel Du Wei was found dead at his residence in the suburb of Herzliya in Tel Aviv. As per standard operating procedure, police have been deployed outside his house.
According to Channel 12 TV of Israel, the 57-year-old died in his sleep of natural causes. However, the cause of his death has not been officially announced. Moreover, no comment has been made so far about his death by the Chinese embassy in Israel or the Foreign Affairs Ministry. Wei is now survived by his wife and one son.
China’s ambassador to Israel found dead in his apartment in a Tel Aviv suburb, Israeli media report https://t.co/RPJKSpjhhv
— BBC Breaking News (@BBCBreaking) May 17, 2020
Shifted to Israel in February
Du Wei served as China’s ambassador to Ukraine before moving to Israel in February this year, amidst the Coronavirus outbreak. In an article in the Jerusalem post, he shared his experience of being self- quarantined immediately after arriving in the Jewish country. Following his appointment, Wei had hailed the relation between ‘startup nation’ and the ‘second-largest economy in the world (China).’
Mike Pompeo slammed China
The news of his death comes a week after US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo visited Jerusalem. Pompeo had slammed China for mishandling the Coronavirus outbreak and urged the Jewish country to stop signing deals with Chinese companies. The embassy had dubbed his comments as ‘absurd’ and denied covering up the pandemic. Last month, he had called on China to permanently shut its wildlife wet markets, citing links between those markets and zoonotic diseases. US had also reportedly pressurised Israel to review USD 1.5 billion desalination plant tender to a Hong Kong based company.
