China’s head of emergency management and former Sinopec president Wang Yupu died of illness on Tuesday, an official announcement said.

Wang, 64, was the first minister of emergency management when the ministry was created in 2018. However, he had been ill from the time of appointment and seldom attended meetings, including this year’s plenary session of the 19th Communist Party Central Committee.

The last public event he attended was a meeting in June, the ministry’s website showed.

While the official announcement does not state the illness Wang died from, it has been speculated that he was suffering from pancreatic cancer.

Wang, born in Xinmin, Liaoning province, was the president of oil and gas enterprise Sinopec before assuming the position of director of the State Administration of Work Safety in 2017. He was assigned to lead the Ministry of Emergency Management the following year.

He was the 19th fellow of the Chinese Academy of Engineering to die this year.

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