Within days of the announcement that former Vice Minister of Public Security Sun Lijun had been
expelled from the CCP and is to face trial, the Central Discipline Inspection Commission notified
on October 2 that a former Chinese justice minister has become a target of President Xi Jinping's
anti-corruption campaign. Fu Zhenghua, who was also a former vice minister of public security,
is under investigation for severe violations of party discipline and law. It is unclear why 66 year
old Fu Zhenghu would become a target of the campaign. He was the long time head of public
security for Beijing and Vice Minister of Public Security from 2013 to 2018. He then served as
Minister of Justice from 2018 to 2020. When he was Vice Minister for Public Security, Fu
Zhenghua led the probe against Politburo Standing Committee member Zhou Yongkang, one of
the most senior officials convicted in the anti-corruption campaign. An interesting aspect of these
investigations of senior Public Security officials is observation of the Central Discipline
Inspection Commission that Sun Lijun had “extremely bloated political ambition, vile political
quality.” The allegations levelled against him are grave and stated that to fulfil his personal
political goals, Sun Lijun groomed rebels within the Chinese Communist Party, spent much effort
forming interest groups to control key government departments, and seriously undermined the
unity and political security of the party, according to the allegations. He is also accused of blatantly
selling official posts and inserting his trusted minions in positions, which severely damaged the
political and legal environment of the Public Security Ministry. Sun Lijun was secretary to Meng
Jianzhu, a former Minister of Public Security, and a close ally of Deputy Prime Minister Han
Zheng, who heads the central leading group on Hong Kong and Macau affairs.
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