*BEIJING – The former Chinese head of Interpol, who went missing lastmonth, was accused of accepting bribes on Monday, becoming the latest topofficial to fall in President Xi Jinping’s anti-corruption dragnet.*
After days of concealing the fate of Meng Hongwei — who is also China’svice minister for public security — from the international community, thepublic security ministry said Monday he had accepted bribes but provided nofurther details on the allegations or the conditions and location of Meng’sapparent detention.
French officials disclosed on Friday that Meng had been reported missingafter leaving France for China, while his wife voiced concern for his lifeon Sunday some two weeks after he texted her an ominous knife emoji.
His case could tarnish Beijing’s efforts to gain leadership posts ininternational organisations, but it is also a black eye for France-basedInterpol, which is tasked with finding missing people, analysts say.
Interpol said Sunday that Meng had resigned and would be temporarilyreplaced by a South Korean official until a new election in November —hours after China’s anti-graft body, the National Supervisory Commission,said he was under investigation for violating unspecified laws.
The public security ministry released a statement Monday afternoon, sayingMeng accepted bribes and that the investigation “clearly expressed comradeXi Jinping’s” determination to fully carry out the struggle against graft.
It did not provide more details about the allegations. “It shows that noone is above the law with no exceptions. Anyone who violates the law willbe seriously investigated and severely punished,” the statement said,adding others suspected of accepting bribes alongside Meng would beinvestigated and dealt with.
Meng is the latest high-profile Chinese citizen to disappear, with a numberof top government officials, billionaire business magnates and even anA-list celebrity vanishing for weeks or months at a time. When — or if —they reappear, it is often in court.
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Meng, the first Chinese president of Interpol, was last heard from onSeptember 25 as he left Lyon, where Interpol is headquartered.
Meng was appointed in 2016, despite concerns from human rights groups aboutgiving Chinese President Xi Jinping a win in his bid to paint thecommunist-led country as a responsible player in global affairs.
But the episode could be a setback for China. Interpol was kept in the darkabout Meng’s disappearance, prompting its secretary general Juergen Stock,who oversees day-to-day operations, to say Saturday the agency was seeking“clarification” on his whereabouts.
“Any international organisation should think twice going forward beforeconsidering a Chinese candidate to be its head,” said Bonnie Glaser, seniorAsia adviser at Washington’s Center for Strategic and International Studies.
Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Lu Kang said Beijing will continue tosupport Interpol’s work and “strengthen pragmatic cooperation” with itsmember states to crack down on crime. – APP/AFP
