*Former Central Committee
member stripped of all titles, party watchdog says.
*Official also accused of
encouraging his wife to use his status to further her own interests.
Published: 4:20pm, 27 Mar,
2019
The former Chinese president
of Interpol, Meng Hongwei,
has been expelled from the Communist Party of China and stripped of all his
positions for serious violation of the law and discipline, the party watchdog
said on Wednesday.
The Central Commission for
Discipline Inspection (CCDI) said the Central Committee of the Communist Party
had also approved an investigation into Meng, 65, who was a member of the
committee and vice-minister for public security.
The CCDI accused Meng of
abusing his position and power for personal gain, squandering state funds to
finance his family’s extravagant lifestyle, and disregarding the principles of
being a party member.
In a rare gesture, the
statement also accused Meng of encouraging his wife to use his status to
further her own interests.
Any assets acquired as a
result of Meng’s alleged illegal activities would be handed over to prosecutors
in accordance with the law, the watchdog said.
Once a rising
political star, Meng made his way up the ranks of China’s public security
apparatus to become head of the Chinese branch of Interpol in 2004, and the
nation’s first president of the global organisation in 2016.
His subsequent downfall was
seen as the final stage of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s sweeping clean-up of
the top leadership of the public security ministry, which controls the nation’s
2 million strong police force.
The dramatic events
surrounding Meng’s disappearance in September also provided evidence of Beijing
prioritising its domestic agenda over the need to present itself as a capable
and appropriate leader of an international organisation like Interpol.
Deng Yuwen, an independent
political analyst based in the United States, said the way in which the
incident was handled could affect how China is perceived by the global policing
body, but was unlikely to have a long-term impact in other areas.
“Meng’s case may affect other
Chinese officials’ chances of leading Interpol for a while as it was really an
embarrassment,” he said. “But the wider impact on China’s role in international
organisations will be limited as there are only a few Chinese officials in senior
positions, such as at the World Health Organisation.”
If they ever became embroiled
in a corruption scandal Beijing would handle the cases very differently, Deng
said.
Meng was last heard from on
September 25 after leaving his home in the French city of Lyon bound for China.
He sent his wife, Grace Meng, a message on social media telling her to “wait
for my call”, along with a knife emoji suggesting he was in some kind of
danger.
Grace Meng reported her
husband missing to the French authorities on October 4 and was later put under
police protection after receiving threatening messages over the telephone and
online. Earlier this year she applied for asylum in France.
On October 6, Interpol issued
a request to the Chinese government for information on Meng’s whereabouts and
the CCDI replied the next day saying he had been detained in connection with an
investigation into alleged corruption.
Agence France-Presse reported
that Grace Meng, who has not spoken to her husband since he went missing,
asked French
President Emmanuel Macron to discuss the matter with Chinese
President Xi Jinping during his recent European tour.
In a letter to the Elysee
Palace dated March 21, she “asks to know where and how he is”, the report said.
Despite her request, there
have been no reports that Xi and Macron discussed the matter.
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