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posted by martyb on Monday October 08 2018, @03:26AM   Printer-friendly
from the the-best-laid-plans-of-mice-and-men dept.

Interpol Chief, Detained by China, Resigns Under 'Supervision' of Party Watchdog

In a stunning move that could set back the country's efforts to expand its global presence, the Chinese Communist Party announced late Sunday that the missing president of Interpol, Meng Hongwei, was under investigation on "suspicion of violating the law" and was "under the supervision" of an anticorruption watchdog tied to the party. The announcement that Mr. Meng, a Chinese national, was being detained was posted online by the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, the party's watchdog against graft and political disloyalty, on Sunday night. A few hours later, Interpol said it had received Mr. Meng's resignation "with immediate effect."

[...] While China may have had its eye on placing its citizens in other top posts at prominent global organizations, "the fact that Meng was 'disappeared' without any notice to Interpol will undermine this Chinese global outreach effort," Mr. Ku said. "It is hard to imagine another international organization feeling comfortable placing a Chinese national in charge without feeling nervous that this might happen."

The announcement of Mr. Meng's detention came hours after his wife, Grace, told reporters in Lyon, France, that before her husband had vanished on a trip to China, he had sent her a phone message with an emoji of a knife. She interpreted the knife image to mean "he is in danger," she said in a brief statement to reporters on Sunday in Lyon, where the two were living and where Interpol is headquartered. Ms. Meng gave her statement at a hotel, keeping her back to reporters so that her face would not be captured on camera, a precaution that she said was for security reasons for herself and her children. She said she had received the message with the knife image shortly after Mr. Meng arrived in China. It came just four minutes after she received a message from him saying, "Wait for my call," she said. She has not heard from him since. She reported his disappearance to the French police on Oct. 4. A French police investigation is now underway, with the authorities saying that he had boarded a plane and arrived in China, but that his subsequent whereabouts was unknown.

In addition to serving as president of the international crime fighting body, Mr. Meng is also a vice minister in the Chinese Ministry of Public Security.

Also at Bloomberg and The Washington Post.


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  • (Score: 2) by takyon on Monday October 08 2018, @03:44PM (2 children)

    by takyon (881) <reversethis-{gro ... s} {ta} {noykat}> on Monday October 08 2018, @03:44PM (#745989) Journal

    Russian, Chinese, and Western governments have varying degrees of legitimacy. Russia's is probably the most laughable because the economy is bad, corruption is unchecked, and the nation's posturing comes from a position of relative weakness. China on the other hand can credibly compete with the U.S. on the world stage, and has a bright future no matter what.

    Also, the crime matters. You are more likely to hear about some well-known person being arrested for political reasons in China. It could be a real corruption case, a political purge, or both. In your city or town, you'll hear about people being arrested for DUI, assault, rape, burglary, etc. and are more likely to see these people as guilty.

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  • (Score: 3, Interesting) by bob_super on Monday October 08 2018, @05:08PM

    by bob_super (1357) on Monday October 08 2018, @05:08PM (#746027)

    Considering the reports of impunity we had heard for years, I have zero doubt that the Chinese government could easily find 120 high-ranking corrupt officials, and 100k people with significant skeletons in their closet.
    Actually innocent people getting framed ? It's hard to get that far up a dirty funnel while staying clean. I don't think they have to fabricate much...

    Whether the corruption probe hits only people that have not licked Xi's boots clean enough, and none of his cronies, is where the eyebrows legitimately get raised.

  • (Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Monday October 08 2018, @07:29PM

    by Phoenix666 (552) on Monday October 08 2018, @07:29PM (#746096) Journal

    China on the other hand can credibly compete with the U.S. on the world stage, and has a bright future no matter what.

    I don't know about that. China has "feet of clay," as the Chinese say. It's a very fractious society. The US has a severe Left vs. Right gap. China has about 17 on the same scale. The US has civil society to buffer dislocations. China doesn't; the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) exterminates those to prevent challenges to its power. Some Americans decry the inability of immigrants to speak English; Half of China doesn't speak Mandarin, and the half that doesn't is divided up into many different dialects and unrelated languages.

    Strategically, China is also encircled. Japan and South Korea are our pals. ASEAN leans toward America, because they're afraid of Chinese hegemony (the island seizures in the Spratleys and such have not helped Beijing win friends in the region). India hates China, and acquired nuclear weapons to deter them. Russia, of course, is more focused on the West, but it has not taken its eye off the East.

    So China has a lot to overcome. They are working very hard to overcome it, but there's no guarantee they will if the rest of the world braces up against them.

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