The Chinese head of Interpol, Meng Hongwei, has been detained and is under investigation for suspected violations of laws, said a newly formed anti-corruption body in China in a statement released late on Oct. 7. The announcement was made by China’s National Supervisory Commission, after a weekend of silence on the matter by the Beijing regime.
Meng’s wife had contacted police in Lyon, the French city where the international police agency is based, and reported Meng missing, after not hearing from him since Sept. 25. She also had received threats by phone and on social media, France’s interior ministry said.
Meng, who also is vice-minister of China’s police apparatus, was reported missing after traveling from France to China. Meng’s wife, who has remained in Lyon with their children according to police sources, was receiving protection, France’s interior ministry said on Oct. 6.
It wasn’t clear why Meng, 64, who was named Interpol’s president two years ago, had traveled to China.
There have been several cases in recent years of senior Chinese officials vanishing without explanation, only for the government to announce weeks or even months later that they have been put under investigation, often for suspected corruption.
Hong Kong’s South China Morning Post cited an unnamed source as saying Meng had been taken for questioning as soon as he landed in China, but it wasn’t clear why.
In April, Chinese state media had reported that Meng was no longer a member of the Ministry of Public Security’s central Party committee, a decision-making body. That was an early sign of his diminished political status.
When Meng was named Interpol’s president in Nov. 2016, human-rights groups expressed concern that Beijing might try to leverage his position to pursue dissidents abroad. Beijing has in the past pressed countries to arrest and deport to China citizens it accuses of crimes, from corruption to terrorism.
At the time, Amnesty International called Meng’s appointment “at odds with Interpol’s mandate to work in the spirit of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.”
