China arrests ex-minister who ‘deserted’ post during Covid outbreak in Wuhan

Sun Lijun, who was part of a group of top officials dispatched to Wuhan last year following the Covid-19 outbreak in the central Chinese city, was expelled from the CPC in September.

A former powerful vice-minister of public security who was sent to Wuhan, the first epicentre of the Covid-19 pandemic in March, 2020, has been arrested on charges of accepting bribes, state media reported on Friday.

Sun Lijun, then a vice-minister of public security, attends a meeting in Wuhan in central China’s Hubei Province on April 7, 2020. The ruling Communist Party has expelled Sun amid a raft of accusations from corruption to abandoning his post amid the Covid-19 outbreak. (AP)

Sun Lijun, who was part of a group of top officials dispatched to Wuhan last year following the Covid-19 outbreak in the central Chinese city, was expelled from the Communist Party of China (CPC) in September.

Sun had also overseen the crackdown on pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong in 2017. “China’s Supreme People’s Procuratorate has ordered the arrest of Sun Lijun, former vice-minister of public security, for suspected bribe-taking,” the Xinhua news agency said in a brief report on Friday.

Sun was under investigation for more than a year, state media had earlier reported.

A state media report published on Sun in September said he abandoned his post during the Covid-19 outbreak.

“The investigation found that on the frontline of fighting the Covid-19 epidemic, Sun deserted his post. He also possessed confidential materials without authorisation and engaged in superstitious activities for a long time,” the earlier report said.

The accusation of “deserting” his post during the fight against Covid-19 - which first emerged in Wuhan in late 2019 - did not clarify what exactly he had done to attract such strong accusations from the authorities.

“The investigation showed that Sun never stayed true to the party’s ideals and faith, displayed extremely inflated political ambition and very poor political integrity, issued groundless criticisms of the party’s policies, and spread political rumours,” the earlier report said.

“The circumstances were particularly serious, the nature was particularly pernicious, the impact was extremely bad and the case must be handled with extreme seriousness,” it said.

Sun “sold official posts, accepted a large amount of money and property, attended banquets and high-end entertainment activities that could affect the impartial performance of official duties, and indulged in a luxurious lifestyle for a long time”.