The communist regime in China has placed a former high-ranking public security official under arrest, just days before the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) holds a major political meeting.
Sun Lijun, 52, was arrested on suspicion of accepting bribes during the time when he was a party committee member and vice minister at China’s Ministry of Public Security, the country’s top prosecutor announced in a statement on Nov. 5.
Sun became the ministry’s vice minister in March 2018, before he was stripped of his post in May 2020, a month after he was placed under the party’s internal investigation for corruption.
The statement added that the arrest was made following the conclusion of an investigation by the National Supervisory Commission, the regime’s anti-corruption watchdog. Without providing any more details, the statement concluded by saying that the case against Sun was “being further processed.”
The brief statement leaves open the question of whether the Chinese authorities have also investigated Sun for crimes outside of his political career at the ministry. Sun was once a deputy director at the 610 Office, the regime’s Gestapo-like agency that is notorious for human rights violations against Falun Gong adherents.
More details about Sun’s alleged crimes were announced back in September, when the regime’s Central Commission for Discipline Inspection expelled Sun from the Communist Party following its investigation.
The commission accused Sun of having “hugely inflated political ambitions” and “spreading political rumors.” He had formed “factions and gangs” within the party, and created his own “interest group,” in order to build up his own power. His action “severely undermined the unity of the party,” the commission stated.
