A close ally of former police chief Wang Lijun who was adept at wiretapping was detained in a facility that was designed to house officers busted during the municipality's massive triad crackdown launched by former Chongqing party boss Bo Xilai and Wang.
A source in Chongqing told the South China Morning Post last week that in the heyday of the sweeping anti-crime campaign steered by Bo and Wang, they set up a detention centre near Shizishan village in Jiangbei district, specifically for the imprisonment of police officers.
The officers had been found to be either friends of so-called triad bosses or had had a falling out with Bo, Wang or their allies.
'I know a mid-level policeman who was sent to the centre by Li Yang (pictured), the former head of the municipal criminal police team, for 'failing to do his best work',' the source said, adding that the officer, who used to be a strong and well-built man, became weak and fragile after months of torture at the centre. The officer was recently released after the downfall of both Wang and Bo.
Ironically, Li was sent to that detention facility after the downfall of the pair. The source said Li was a specialist in phone tapping who had worked as the head of a telecommunications centre with Dalian Maritime University in northeastern Liaoning province before he was invited by Wang, his close friend for years, to be the political commissar of the criminal investigation squad in the second half of 2010. He was named the head of the team in September last year. Wang and Li formed an association to improve co-operation between Dalian Maritime University and Chongqing police.
Li also oversaw the telecommunications squad with Chongqing's public security bureau before his downfall last month.
Overseas media have reported rumours that the municipality's former party boss, Bo Xilai, wiretapped senior party leaders, such as a conversation between President Hu Jintao and Minister of Supervision Ma Wen when she visited Chongqing in August.
