Amid several controversies, including stealing unclassified technologies from the US, burdening poor and vulnerable countries with loans as well as human rights violations, China is now battling with the latest accusation of being a graveyard for foreign envoys. As per an estimate, a total 13 foreign envoys, including China’s ambassador to Israel Du Wei met with deaths in Since 2000, Hong Kong Post reported.
Recently, after the death of Myanmar’s ambassador to China U Myo Thant Pe this year on August 7 in Kunming, Beijing has come under the spotlight for the wrong reason as this was the fourth death of the head of missions since last year. Notably, the Myanmar’s Foreign Ministry’s obituary for ambassador U Myo Thant Pe did not specify the cause of his death, The Hong Kong Post reported.
Meanwhile, German ambassador Jan Hecker, Ukraine ambassador SerhiiKamyshev and Philippines envoys Jose Santiago Chito Sta-all died in harness in China, making the Middle Kingdom a dangerous host for foreign envoys. According to the Hong Kong Post, in the history of international diplomacy, ambassadors and high commissioners have often fallen victim to motivated killings and personal ailments.
Furthermore, it has not yet been known how German envoy to China, Jan Hecker, 54, suddenly died only a few weeks after taking up his ambassadorial assignment in Beijing on August 24, 2021. “Based on the circumstances of the death, we have no indication that Jan Hecker’s passing was related in any way at all to his professional role as German ambassador in Beijing,” Heiko Maas, the then Foreign Minister of Germany was quoted by DPA news agency as saying, Hong Kong Post reported.
Ukrainian ambassador SerhiiKamyshev’s died before his return to Beijing last year on February 14 from a trip to the Winter Olympics site in Zhangjiakou. More than 50 ambassadors lost their lives while working in different countries in between thebeginning of the 20th century and August 7, 2022.