Prominent Chinese researcher Wu Jianguo passed away at the age of 66 early this month. One China expert believes that Wu’s untimely death could be linked to the political struggle among high-level officials in the lead-up to the 20th Party Congress, which convened on Oct. 16.
Wu, former director of the State Key Laboratory of Virology (SKLV), passed away from “sudden illness” after midnight on Oct. 3 in Foshan city, Guangdong Province, according to the obituary released by the lab’s official WeChat account on Oct. 4.