China’s former internet tsar Lu Wei detained in graft probe: anti-corruption agency
In his heyday, Lu controlled internet access for 730 million Chinese users and was the gatekeeper for foreign tech firms seeking to enter the China market
China’s former internet tsar Lu Wei, who once sat in Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg’s seat during a visit to the California company, has been detained amid a Communist Party internal graft probe, its top anti-corruption agency said.
As head of the Cyberspace Administration of China and its predecessor organisation from 2013 to 2016, Lu was a crucial official in the implementation of President Xi Jinping’s cybersecurity policy. In his heyday, he wielded enormous power over what 730 million Chinese internet users could access and acted as the gatekeeper for foreign technology companies seeking to enter the Chinese market.
Lu’s abrupt removal from the helm of the internet regulator in June 2016 – keeping only his party post as a deputy chief of the propaganda department without a portfolio – had fuelled speculation over his political fate.
Sources said Lu was taken away by investigators late last week.
“Along with six other people, either his colleagues or family members, Lu Wei has been taken away for investigation a few days ago,” a well-placed source in Beijing told the South China Morning Post. Lu’s secretary, driver and two medium ranking officials also had been questioned, according to the source.
In an event that underscored Lu’s stature in China, he was greeted by the CEOs of three US tech giants during a late-2014 US visit: Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook, Tim Cook of Apple and Jeff Bezos of Amazon.
