Thursday’s charges against Sun Lijun, who was until April 2020 a Vice Minister of Public Security and one of the senior-most officials in charge of the police forces in China, were the latest in an already long list of serious accusations. The sudden downfall of Mr. Sun, who had only in early 2020 been dispatched by Mr. Xi to Wuhan to oversee the handling of the COVID-19 outbreak, had sparked debate about the loyalty of the police force and whether Mr. Sun was fomenting internal opposition to Mr. Xi. Mr. Sun’s purge followed the removal of another senior security official, Meng Hongwei, who was removed in 2018 at a time when he was serving as the head of Interpol. ‘Illegal gun possession’The filing of charges on Thursday paves the way for Mr. Sun’s trial. Mr. Sun was previously accused of “deserting his post” during the pandemic while supervising the COVID-19 response in Wuhan, although the details were never spelled out.

Source: The Hindu January 13, 2022 22:43 UTC