Sun Lijun Purge
Sun Lijun, Vice Minister of Public Security, is being investigated for suspected "severe violations of party discipline and law, the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Commission for Discipline Inspection and the National Supervisory Commission, the country's top anti-graft bodies, said 19 April 2020.
Sun, 51, from Qingdao in Shandong Province, east China, became the youngest vice minister of public security in March 2018. He is a graduate from the University of New South Wales, Australia, with a master's degree in public health. Before the investigation, Sun participated in the prevention and control of the novel coronavirus outbreak in Wuhan, Hubei Province in central China. His last public appearance was at an oath-taking ceremony for new probationary members of the CPC in Wuhan.
Analysts described Sun as an “invisible hitman,” who had played a key role in top leader Xi Jinping’s past efforts to maintain social stability by rounding up dissidents including Falun Gong followers and rights lawyers during a 2015 crackdown. They add that his arrest, which follows the jailing of former Interpol chief Meng Hongwei earlier for bribery, was baffling, but indicated undercurrents in Xi’s power fight amid the global coronavirus pandemic. There has been rife speculation that Xi’s authority had been seriously challenged after China failed to swiftly contain the outbreak.
“This isn’t a corruption probe. This is sending a chilling effect to anyone else inside the party, which allows Xi to control them with fear so that he can further consolidate his grip of power,” a rights lawyer told VOA on condition of anonymity. The lawyer likened Sun’s being purged to Mao Zedong-style infighting. Mao was founder of the People’s Republic of China and advocated strict Communist Party control over all aspects of life.
The ministry went to great lengths to explain how party members should pledge “absolute loyalty” to the core – a reference to Xi – and refrain from double-dealing as what they called a “two-faced man.” Sun, 51, led the ministry’s First Bureau, which manages the country’s army of state agents while handling domestic political security and Hong Kong’s security affairs.
Sun belonged to a group known informally as the Shanghai Gang, led by Xi’s political rival, former President Jiang Zemin. Jiang oversaw the return of Hong Kong from British rule and is credited with reforms that helped turn China into a global economic power. Sun had stashed away assets worth of billions in his wife’s bank account in Australia, where Sun’s wife and 19-year-son lived as citizens.
The ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) expelled former vice minister for public security Sun Lijun for "serious violations of discipline" on the eve of its 01 October 2021 National Day celebrations, accusing him of building cliques and cabals to take over a key government department. The CCDI statement was published one day after a meeting in Beijing of the public security leading group's education and rectification group. Executive vice minister for public security Wang Xiaohong told the meeting that it was important to "totally eliminate the drug-like influence of [jailed security minister] Zhou Yongkang, [detained former Interpol president] Meng Hongwei, Sun Lijun and others" from the team to ensure "purity."
Sun, who has been held by the CCP's Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI) for several months, was found to have "overweening political ambitions" and "arbitrarily disagreed with central policy guidelines," the CCDI said in a statement on its official website. Sun had "created and spread political rumors, taken actions against others, wove a web of deceit to obtain political capital and ... used unscrupulous means ... to form gangs, cliques and interest groups within the party and build his personal power," the Sept. 30 statement said.
"He formed a cabal to take control over [a] key department[s], seriously jeopardizing political security and party unity," it said. Under the CCP hierarchy, the most critical departments are the "leading groups" under the CCP Central Committee, which coordinate the work of the ministries under them. Departments engaged in military work, the domestic and external security apparatus, economic management, and ideology and propaganda are also considered crucial. Sun's inclusion in the leading group managing the COVID-19 pandemic suggests that the public health emergency was also seen as a potential threat to domestic security, and the stability of the CCP regime.
According to the CCDI, Sun had also built a private stash of confidential materials, resigned without authorization on the frontline of the pandemic, and placed his "cronies" in positions of power. The CCDI also accused Sun of "extreme greed" and of illegally accepting huge amounts of assets while in office. "Sun Lijun seriously violated the party’s political discipline, organizational discipline and integrity as well as Chinese laws, and is a criminal suspect," it said, saying the nature of Sun's alleged offenses was "particularly serious."
It said the CCDI and the Central Committee had decided that Sun should be expelled from the CCP and from any public posts held, and his case transferred to the state prosecutor, paving the way for a trial.
Hu Ping, U.S.-based founder of the online magazine Beijing Spring, said Sun was definitely corrupt, but that didn't explain why he was only being investigated now. "He has been corrupt for a very long time, so why is he falling from grace now?" Hu said. "It shows that Xi Jinping's anti-corruption campaign is selective."
"Anyone who is seen as politically reliable by Xi Jinping will be safe," he said. Hu said the accusation that Sun had stored confidential materials was particularly important, as there had been rumors that Sun had leaked secrets about the emergence of the coronavirus pandemic to Australia. "This is why Australia is getting particularly tough on China on the issue of tracing the origins [of the pandemic]," Hu said. "Maybe those rumors weren't groundless after all."
U.S.-based legal scholar Teng Biao said Sun's downfall is likely connected with a power struggle in the corridors of Zhongnanhai. "At the very least, we can see that the power struggle in party ranks has intensified," Teng said. "The CCDI makes no secret of that in its report."
|
NEWSLETTER
|
| Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list |
|
|
|
