China indicts former top internet regulator on corruption charges

Prosecutors have indicted China’s former top internet regulator on charges that he took bribes and abused his power.

Lu Wei, left, with Chinese President Xi Jinping and Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg in the US in 2014. Picture: Getty Images.

China’s former top internet regulator has been indicted on charges of bribery and abuse of power, ­advancing a case portrayed as a sign of President Xi Jinping’s continuing commitment to his anti-corruption campaign.

Lu Wei, once director of China’s powerful Cyberspace ­Administration, was well known across the technology industry as a leading figure in the communist party’s efforts to reshape the global internet. The 58-year-old was put under investigation in ­November and expelled from the party in February. He hasn’t been seen or heard from publicly since late last year.

According to a report by the ­official Xinhua News Agency on Monday, prosecutors have accused Mr Lu of having taken large bribes in return for misusing his public powers to benefit others. The alleged wrongdoing spanned his career as a senior Xinhua executive, a propaganda official and an internet regulator.

Mr Lu is to face trial at a ­municipal court in the port city of Ningbo, according to Xinhua, ­although no date was given. He could not be reached for comment, and it was not known whether he had a lawyer.

Mr Lu was the first senior official to be snared by a corruption probe after Mr Xi started a second five-year term as communist party chief last October.

State media said Mr Lu’s downfall demonstrated Mr Xi’s will to sustain the high-pressure crackdown he launched after taking power in late 2012.

The Chinese leader has called the anti-corruption campaign a “life or death” matter for the party, whose legitimacy was threatened by endemic graft, but he has also used it to sideline rivals and consolidate power.

As the inaugural director of the Cyberspace Administration, created in 2014, Mr Lu was the top policy official for internet matters, tasked with implementing Mr Xi’s plans for turning China into a ­cyberpower, as well as strict media and internet controls. Those ­duties gave him huge sway over the fortunes of internet businesses in China, and many executives — Chinese and Western alike — sought meetings with him to discuss policy matters.

During a 2014 tour in the US, for instance, Mr Lu met tech chief executives including Apple’s Tim Cook and Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, as well as Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg, who hosted the Chinese internet tsar at his company’s California headquarters.

Mr Lu’s career came under a cloud after his removal as Cyberspace Administration director in June 2016. He kept a vice-­ministerial post in the party’s propaganda department until he was put under investigation.

In February, the party’s disciplinary watchdog unveiled wide-ranging allegations against Mr Lu, branding him a “typical two-faced person” who “lost his ideals and beliefs” and showed “extreme disloyalty to the party centre”.

A social media account run by the communist party’s flagship newspaper, People’s Daily, described the allegations as the harshest issued against a high-ranking official. Since then, senior provincial officials have used Mr Lu’s case as an example to educate party cadres on political discipline. Top party officials in eastern Zhejiang province, for instance, held a meeting in May to discuss Mr Lu’s wrongdoings.

The Wall Street Journal