China investigates former senior justice official and Interpol committee member Liu Zhiqiang
- Beijing’s top anti-graft agency says Liu is ‘suspected of serious violations of discipline and law’, which is widely understood to mean corruption
- Liu worked with Tang Yijun, China’s justice minister from 2020 to 2023, who was also placed under investigation this month
The Central Commission for Discipline Inspection published a brief statement on its website on Tuesday saying Liu, 60, was “undergoing disciplinary review and supervisory investigation” and was “suspected of serious violations of discipline and law” – a euphemism for corruption.
The statement did not give further details.
Liu was vice-minister at the Ministry of Justice from January 2016 to June 2023.
He majored in English in Beijing in the early 1980s and spent more than three decades in police-related foreign affairs positions before moving to the ministry, public records show.
Liu started as a junior staff member at the Ministry of Public Security’s foreign affairs bureau in 1984 and rose through the ranks in its European and American affairs division.
In 1991-92, Liu was sent by the Chinese government to study police science and criminal justice at the University of Exeter in Britain where he earned a master’s degree.
He was deputy foreign affairs bureau chief in the Ministry of Public Security from 1999 to 2004. The period overlapped with a stint from 2000 to 2003 as a member of the executive committee of the International Criminal Police Organisation, known as Interpol.