China’s former internet tsar Lu Wei jailed for 14 years for bribery
- Former face of online censorship pleaded guilty to corruption charges last October
- Party disciplinary body had accused him of range of violations ranging from disloyalty to trading power for sex and lack of self control
China’s former internet tsar Lu Wei was sentenced to 14 years in prison for accepting bribes and fined 3 million yuan (US$447,000) on Tuesday.
The former head of the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) told the Intermediate People’s Court of Ningbo that he would not appeal.
The court also confiscated all the assets he obtained corruptly.
According to prosecutors, Lu accepted bribes, either directly or through third parties, in almost every position he held in his decades-long career at state news agency Xinhua, the Beijing municipal party committee and government, the cyberspace administration and the party’s Central Publicity Department.
Lu “confessed his crimes and expressed repentance”, said the court, which added that this was grounds for leniency.
Lu, 59, was widely regarded as the public face of China’s draconian censorship of the internet.
At the height of his influence, the gatekeeper of the world’s largest online population was named by Time magazine in 2015 as one of the world’s 100 most influential people.
The once powerful propagandist was known for his flamboyant style and courted by the world’s most prominent technology executives, including Facebook’s co-founder Mark Zuckerberg.
Lu had been in charge of the CAC since its formation in 2014, until he was abruptly removed from the position in June 2016.
On November 2017, the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection announced that Lu had been detained for a “serious violation of the rules”, making him the first “tiger” – a name used to describe senior officials accused of corruption – to be targeted during President Xi Jinping’s second term in power.
In February of the following year, he was booted out of the party and denounced by its top anti-corruption watchdog.
The disciplinary commission used harsh wording like “tyrannical” and “shameless” to attack Lu’s character, accusing him of everything from extreme disloyalty to duplicity, trading power for sex and having a lack of self-control.
Last November, a handwritten letter of repentance from Lu went on display at an exhibition in Beijing to mark the 40th anniversary of the country’s reform and opening up.
“I have made serious, unforgivable mistakes in politics, finance, work, and life, and totally abandoned the basic principles and the bottom line of a Communist Party member,” Lu wrote.
In an apparent reference to the party’s claims that he traded power for sex, Lu wrote: “My lifestyle hurt my wife deeply and we often argued because of it.
“She has completely given up on me. She once said to me in sadness: ‘I can’t control you, but sooner or later the Communist Party will fix you.’ And the prophecy has come true!”
