China says Interpol chief suspected ‘of violating the law’

THE president of Interpol, who vanished after returning to his homeland, is under investigation for possible criminal activity as his wife voiced concern for his life after he sent her a final text message with a knife emoji.

Beijing had remained tight-lipped about the fate of Meng Hongwei, who is also China’s vice minister for public security, since his disappearance was disclosed by French officials.

The National Supervisory Commission, which handles corruption cases involving public servants, broke the official silence early Monday, saying in a one-line statement that Meng “is currently under investigation on suspicion of violating the law”.

It is the latest high-profile disappearance in China, where a number of top government officials, billionaire business magnates and even an A-list celebrity have vanished for weeks or months at a time.

When — or if — they reappear, it is often in court.

Meng, the first Chinese president of Interpol, was last heard from on September 25 as he left Lyon — where the international police organisation is based — for China.

The agency’s secretary-general Juergen Stock, who oversees day-to-day operations, had said Saturday that it was seeking “clarification” on his whereabouts from Chinese authorities.

French police had opened an investigation into Meng’s disappearance last week, according to a source close to the inquiry.

Meng, 64, had lived with his wife and two children in France since being elected Interpol president in 2016.

DANGER EMOJI
Grace Meng told reporters that she had not heard from her husband since September 25.

That day, he sent her the knife image from an Interpol phone four minutes after sending an initial message saying: “Wait for my call.”

She said the call never came and she does not know what happened to him, adding that her husband was in China when he sent the message.

The Interpol statement did not say exactly why Meng resigned. However, a watchdog for China’s ruling Communist Party said in a brief statement on its website that Meng was “suspected of violating the law and is currently under the monitoring and investigation” of China’s new anti-corruption body, the National Supervision Commission.

Mrs Meng declined to speculate on her husband’s whereabouts.

“I’m not sure what has happened to him,” she told reporters before the anti-graft commission issued its statement.

She said he regularly travelled back and forth between Lyon, where Interpol is headquartered, and China for his job. He had been on a three-country tour, to Norway, Sweden and Serbia, for Interpol before his latest trip back to China, she said.

Before he shared the knife image, she said she had sent him a photo of two animal figurines, one of a bear and another of a horse, meant to represent their two children; one of them loves horses, she said, and the other “looks like the bear.”

Mrs. Meng was accompanied to her news conference at a Lyon hotel by two French police officers who were assigned to look after her. She would not allow reporters to show her face, saying she feared for her own safety and the safety of her children. Her voice trembled with emotion as she read a prepared statement.

“From now on, I have gone from sorrow and fear to the pursuit of truth, justice and responsibility toward history,” she said. “For the husband whom I deeply love, for my young children, for the people of my motherland, for all the wives and children’s husbands and fathers to no longer disappear.”

Later, upon learning about the announcement from Chinese authorities, she told AFP that her husband’s case will be under the watch of “international law and international public opinion”, describing the situation as “political ruin”.

China’s recently established National Supervisory Commission holds sweeping powers to investigate the country’s public servants with few requirements for transparency.

Although the commission did not detail the allegations against Meng, its mandate is to investigate corruption cases as part of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s anti-graft campaign.

Some critics of the effort — which has punished more than one million officials — say it also functions as a tool for Xi to eliminate his political rivals.

RED NOTICES
Meng rose up the ranks of the country’s domestic security apparatuses when it was under the leadership of Zhou Yongkang, a rival to Xi and the highest-ranking official to be brought down on corruption charges.

Zhou — who was sentenced to life in prison in 2014 — was subsequently accused of conspiring to seize state power and authorities have continued working to root out his influence.

He appointed Meng vice security minister in 2004.

In that role, Meng has been entrusted with a number of sensitive portfolios, including the country’s counter-terrorism division, and he was in charge of the response to several major incidents in China’s fractious western region of Xinjiang.

Critics of Meng’s 2016 election to Interpol’s presidency said he would use the position to help China target dissidents abroad under the guise of pursuing corrupt officials.

Interpol has downplayed the concerns, saying the president has little influence over the organisation’s day-to-day operations, which are handled by secretary-general Stock, a German.

The Chinese effort to track down corrupt officials abroad, known as Operation Fox Hunt, has led to claims in some countries that Chinese law-enforcement agents have been operating covertly on their soil without the approval or consent of local authorities.

China currently has 44 outstanding red notices, mostly related to murder, intentional injury and drug smuggling, according to Interpol’s web site.

During Meng’s tenure, Interpol issued a red notice for fugitive Chinese billionaire Guo Wengui, who threatened to reveal corruption at the country’s highest levels.

Authorities in China and Hong Kong have accused Guo, a real estate tycoon who resides in the United States, of laundering billions of dollars among other crimes