China’s ex-internet tsar pleads guilty

BEIJING: The former head of internet censorship in China, Lu Wei, pleaded guilty to accepting at least 32 million yuan in bribes at a trial on Friday. Lu, who oversaw a tightening of online censorship during his tenure at the Cyberspace Administration of China, was a fierce defender of China’s policy of internet control.

In 2016, he stepped down from his post, and officials announced he was being investigated for suspected disciplinary violations the following year. According to a post from Ningbo Intermediate People’s Court’s official Weibo account Friday, Lu was charged with accepting bribes from 2002 until late 2017.

Prosecutors said that Lu used his influence and position at various government organisations, including the Cyberspace Administration of China and Xinhua News Agency, to help others in exchange for benefits.

At the end of the trial in Zhejiang province, Lu pleaded guilty and "repented in court", it said. The former China internet tsar was once named among the world’s 100 most influential people by Time magazine. He also met with several Silicon Valley executives, including Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, who personally welcomed him to the company’s Silicon Valley headquarters in 2014.

Zuckerberg has made several attempts to woo China’s top brass, including President Xi Jinping, as the US social networking site, along with Twitter and Google, remains blocked by China’s "Great Firewall" of online censorship.

Lu is part of a growing group of Communist Party cadres that have been caught in President Xi Jinping’s anti-graft campaign, which critics say has served as a way to remove the president’s political enemies. More than one million officials have been punished so far during Xi’s six-year tenure.