Interpol Chief, Detained by China, Resigns Under ‘Supervision’ of Party Watchdog
"The Myth of Authoritarian Competence"
Grace Meng, the wife of the missing Interpol president, Meng Hongwei, speaking to reporters on Sunday in Lyon, France, during a news conference in which she did not want her face shown.CreditCreditJeff Pachoud/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
By Edward Wong and Alissa J. Rubin
Oct. 7, 2018
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 .. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/05/world/europe/meng-hongwei-missing-interpol.html?module=inline , 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 .. http://www.ccdi.gov.cn/scdc/zggb/zjsc/201810/t20181008_180937.html .. 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.”
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Mr. Meng’s appointment “was considered quite an achievement for China and a sign of its international presence and growing influence,” said Julian Ku, a professor at Hofstra University’s Maurice A. Deane School of Law, who has studied China’s relationship with international law.
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.”
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It is unclear what led to Mr. Meng’s apparent downfall — a power struggle within the party or an actual case of corruption officials deemed to be beyond the pale.
There have been investigations of prominent figures in the anticorruption campaign. The most notable has been that of Zhou Yongkang, a former member of the elite Politburo Standing Committee and top security official. Many analysts of Chinese politics say Mr. Xi viewed Mr. Zhou as a rival and used the anticorruption campaign to imprison him.
“What I find most interesting about Meng Hongwei’s detention,” said Elizabeth Economy, director of Asia studies at the Council on Foreign Relations, “is the continued parade of senior officials being arrested.”
With officials appointed by Mr. Xi himself now being caught up in the six-year anticorruption drive, “it raises the question of whether Xi Jinping simply has a very thin bench of clean officials from whom to choose, whether these officials were adequately vetted before being promoted or whether the anticorruption campaign is simply failing to deter officials from continued corrupt behaviors,” Ms. Economy said. “Whatever the reason, it doesn’t bode well for the party’s ability, ultimately, to police itself.”
Maggie Lewis, a professor of Chinese and Taiwanese law at Seton Hall University Law School, said Mr. Meng’s detention sends a signal that “no one is safe,” and it could give other Chinese officials posted abroad “pause when considering their own travel plans.”
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