Sun Lijun has not yet been sentenced. But Chinese state television has already found him guilty. The former vice minister of public security is at the center of the first episode of a five-part television series on Chinese leader Xi Jinping's anti-corruption campaign. Sun Lijun is among the most prominent officials brought down by the campaign. The series is a co-production of state broadcaster CCTV1 and the Communist Party's Disciplinary Commission. The first episode aired last weekend during prime time at 8 p.m., timed to coincide with a plenary session of the Disciplinary Committee at which Xi Jinping announced "zero tolerance" for corruption on Tuesday. This is also the title of the so-called documentation.In trailers, the first episode is promoted with an alleged confession that former Deputy Minister of Public Security Sun Lijun makes in front of the camera.

A functionary accuses himself

Friederike Böge

Political correspondent for China, North Korea and Mongolia.

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"I mistakenly believed it was possible to be an official and make money at the same time," he tells an unseen interviewer. Provincial official Wang Like came to Beijing four or five times a year and brought him $300,000 each time. "He put the money in a little box of seafood and he always told me he brought me some seafood. Then I knew what was meant. ”For this he got Wang Like posts and understood him as part of his political network. Sun, dressed in a black t-shirt, accuses himself of being corrupted by his power. Curiously, he cites running red traffic lights as an example. "After I got my position at the Ministry of Public Security, I figured it was okay to go over on red.At the same time he speaks of "serious crimes". Among other things, he secured the goodwill of former Shanghai police chief Gong Dao'an by buying apartments for his children. His "confession" also incriminates two other officials who are also on trial. The "documentation" paints a picture of a swamp of corruption that had spread in the party before Xi Jinping took power. "The allegations against me are correct," Sun Lijun says against an unidentifiable white background. "My mistake is above all that I have lost my ideals and values."His "confession" also incriminates two other officials who are also on trial. The "documentation" paints a picture of a swamp of corruption that had spread in the party before Xi Jinping took power. "The allegations against me are correct," Sun Lijun says against an unidentifiable white background. "My mistake is above all that I have lost my ideals and values."His "confession" also incriminates two other officials who are also on trial. The "documentation" paints a picture of a swamp of corruption that had spread in the party before Xi Jinping took power. "The allegations against me are correct," Sun Lijun says against an unidentifiable white background. "My mistake is above all that I have lost my ideals and values."

His words thus fit seamlessly into the message that Xi Jinping wants to convey with his anti-corruption campaign. In a party history resolution passed by the Central Committee in November, Xi is hailed for solving "the problem of lax and weak leadership in party organizations," after his predecessors failed to do so. The broadcast of the five-part series is a propaganda prelude to the big party congress in the fall, at which Xi Jinping wants to secure a third term in office. It sends out the message that the fight against "flies and tigers," as Xi Jinping calls his campaign, will be intensified again before the party congress. "Despite the high pressure of the anti-corruption campaign, there are still people who cannot contain their inner greed,"it says right at the beginning of the first episode, which is entitled "Do not disappoint 1.4 billion (Chinese)". More than four million charges have been filed for disciplinary offenses since 2012. In the first eleven months of last year, 247,000 cases were investigated in which cadres had not sufficiently implemented "central instructions from Xi Jinping".

Former vice minister Sun Lijun is shown in one scene with a pen that ends up being conspicuously round and chunky in shape.

It was identified as an "anti-suicide pen" on the Chinese internet.

Several senior officials have committed suicide before they could be tried in recent years.

Show trial with unusual detail

The investigation against Sun has officially been ongoing since April 2020. He was expelled from the party in September 2021 and arrested shortly thereafter.

A few days before the "Zero Tolerance" program aired, the details of the charges were released.

From the party's point of view, the accusation that he "never honestly represented the ideals and belief in the party" is particularly serious.

He undermined party unity and endangered political security.

By this is meant the security of the rule of the Communist Party.

In addition, Sun is accused of selling offices, manipulating the stock market and cultivating a luxurious lifestyle.

While such allegations are common in show trials of senior party officials, one detail stands out as unusual: Sun Lijun is said to have possessed a weapon illegally.

China's state broadcaster is notorious for its television confessions.

This practice has been used regularly since Xi Jinping took office and is reminiscent of self-incrimination sessions during the Mao era.

There are numerous cases in which it became known afterwards that those filmed were forced to make their "confessions" and had to memorize a given text beforehand.

In some cases, they were promised relief from imprisonment.

In at least three cases, the forced confessions were also broadcast on the state broadcaster's English-language channel CGTN.

The British watchdog Ofcom has therefore imposed a fine of 300,000 pounds on the broadcaster in 2020.