In a sign of fraying ties amid the Middle East conflict, Israel’s consulate general in Chengdu has closed with its consul general leaving his post, two years after a controversy stoked backlash among Chinese netizens. Nevertheless, an analyst has downplayed the impact of the news, saying bilateral relations in recent years had already been strained. In a letter published on Wednesday, Gadi Harpaz called his five years as Israeli consul general in the southwestern Chinese city “the most memorable...