Germany's envoy to China dies just two weeks into the job

German ambassador to China Jan Hecker has died, barely two weeks into the job, the European nation's foreign office said on Monday. Hecker, 54, a foreign policy adviser to Chancellor Angela Merkel, had just taken up his post on Aug. 24, the embassy in the Chinese capital said in a posting on its social media Wechat account.


Reuters | Berlin | Updated: 06-09-2021 09:44 IST | Created: 06-09-2021 09:36 IST
Germany's envoy to China dies just two weeks into the job
Representative Image Image Credit: ANI
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German ambassador to China Jan Hecker has died, barely two weeks into the job, the European nation's foreign office said on Monday.

Hecker, 54, a foreign policy adviser to Chancellor Angela Merkel, had just taken up his post on Aug. 24, the embassy in the Chinese capital said in a posting on its social media Wechat account. The cause of death has yet to be confirmed.

"It is with deep sadness and dismay that we learned of the sudden death of the German ambassador to China," Germany's Federal Foreign Office said on its website. An embassy spokesman declined further comment to Reuters.

Hecker had appeared "happy and all right" when he hosted an event about German artist Joseph Beuys at his Beijing home last Friday, a guest at the event said.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

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