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.
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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.
The Lyon-based intergovernmental body allows police from different countries – including between countries that do not share diplomatic relations – to work together to tackle crime.
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He was promoted to foreign affairs bureau chief for the Ministry of Public Security in 2004, and in 2005 headed its international cooperation bureau.
Liu left Beijing in 2012 for China’s northwest Qinghai province where he led the provincial public security department and served as vice-provincial governor before returning to the Ministry of Justice in 2016.
The investigation into Liu comes as President Xi Jinping promotes a crackdown on the country’s security and law enforcement apparatus, a campaign has been described as “turning the blade inward”. Hundreds of senior officials at a ministerial level have been brought down as Xi’s signature anti-corruption campaign enters its 11th year.
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