China’s Former ‘Internet Czar’ Ensnared in Xi’s Corruption Fight

  • ‘First tiger’ nabbed since Xi secured second five-year term
  • Lu oversaw internet crackdown, met chiefs of Apple, Facebook
Lu Wei

Photographer: Johannes Eisele/AFP via Getty Images

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China’s former top internet regulator became the first senior official put under investigation for corruption since President Xi Jinping secured a second term in office during a leadership reshuffle last month.

Lu Wei, who ran the Cyberspace Administration of China since its launch in 2014 to last year, is suspected of “serious violations of discipline,” according to a brief statement released Tuesday night on the website of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, the Communist Party’s top graft-busting agency. The phrase typically refers to corruption and abuses of power.