China’s former anti-terrorism chief Liu Yuejin under investigation for corruption

The latest probe follows the downfall of a series of other senior members of the country’s security apparatus

After a career in counternarcotics, Liu became the country’s first counterterrorism chief in 2015

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Liu Yuejin was appointed as the country’s first counterterrorism chief in late 2015. Photo: AP

Published: 8:20pm, 18 Mar 2024Updated: 9:12pm, 18 Mar 2024

China’s first counterterrorism commissioner, Liu Yuejin, has been placed under investigation on suspicion of corruption as part of an ongoing drive targeting the security sector.

Liu, 65, who also served as assistant minister of public security, is suspected of “serious violations of party discipline and law” – the usual euphemism for corruption – according to the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, the Communist Party’s top graft-busting agency.

Liu, who stepped down from the anti-terror role in 2020, is the latest senior security official to fall following President Xi Jinping’s promise to “drive the blade inward”.

In 2022, former deputy security minister Sun Lijun, who was accused of leading a “political clique” and being disloyal to Xi, was jailed for life. In the same month, former justice minister Fu Zhenghua, once one of China’s most powerful police chiefs, was also jailed for life.

In 2020, Meng Hongwei, the former head of Interpol who was detained on a trip back to China, was sentenced to 13½ years in jail for corruption and fined 2 million yuan (about US$290,000).

Liu became the country’s first anti-terror chief in December 2015 following a series of attacks across China, particularly one in March 2014 in Kunming, the capital of Yunnan province.