China: another ex-minister imprisoned for life for corruption and disloyalty to the president

In this image from video footage broadcast by China's CCTV, Sun Lijun, a former vice minister of public security, attends a sentencing court in Changchun, northeastern China's Jilin province. China, Friday, September 23, 2022. AP

Text by: Stéphane Lagarde Follow

3 mins

In China, heads are rolling within the security apparatus.

After a former Minister of Justice on Thursday, it is the turn of a former police chief, Sun Lijun, to be sentenced to life in prison for corruption and for disloyalty to the head of the State.

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From our correspondent in Beijing

,

This is a signal that could not be clearer sent to the security apparatus in China.

Three weeks before the 20th Congress of the CCP, the order is given to close ranks around the Chinese president who is aiming for a third term.

As always, in such a case, the burden is very heavy.

Sun Lijun, 53, is accused of having received no less than 93 million euros in bribes.

The former deputy minister of public security also allegedly abused his position to obtain favors, advance careers and avoid justice for criminals.

He was also found guilty of illegal possession of two firearms, reports the

“Clique” and corruption 

But the most serious charge is political: Sun Lijun is accused of having set up a " 

" against Xi Jinping. 

recall that when he was expelled from the party last September, he was accused of having lacked " 

", " 

 ".

This lack of loyalty to China's number one is also blamed on former Justice Minister Fu Zhenhua, 67, Wang Like, 57, in charge of legal affairs for the eastern province of Jiangsu, but also three former chiefs. of the police whose heads also rolled this week: Gong Daoan in Shanghai, Deng Huilin in the megalopolis of Chongqing in the south-west of the country and Liu Xinyun of the northern province of Shanxi.

All were sentenced to long prison terms for crimes dating back to the late 1990s, by a court in Hebei province near Beijing, so far from their network, but close to central power.  

The purge continues

These cases will probably figure prominently in the disciplinary reports of the next Congress.

Xi Jinping began his first term by getting rid of what the Chinese media called the " 

 ", in this case that of the former public security czar, 

These latest convictions seem to indicate that the great purge of the last five-year term is coming to an end, before the start of the next one. 

.

Result: more than 1.5 million

 but also " 

 " fell as part of the anti-corruption campaign launched by the Head of State when he came to power in 2013.

Sun Lijun was also the man sent by the central government to Wuhan at the start of the Covid-19 epidemic in February 2020. He had also overseen security issues in Hong Kong during the 2019 pro-democracy protests. events which must have contributed to weighing down his file.

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