The Epic Fall of China’s Former Internet Czar Lu Wei

Lu Wei was denounced in strong terms for his corruption by China's Central Commission for Discipline.

Lu Wei, Chinese politician and the senior executive official in charge of cybersecurity and internet policy, delivers a speech during closing ceremony of the Second World Internet Conference on December 18, 2015. (VCG/VCG via Getty Images)
Lu Wei, Chinese politician and the senior executive official in charge of cybersecurity and internet policy, delivers a speech during closing ceremony of the Second World Internet Conference on December 18, 2015. (VCG/VCG via Getty Images)
VCG via Getty Images

Lu Wei was dismissed from his role as Internet czar for the Chinese Communist Party in November, and more details about his alleged crimes came out this week. A new article in Fortune details the decline of Lu, who has been accused of all sorts of corruption, from taking bribes to what Fortune calls “trading power for sex” to violating a variety of party rules. China’s Central Commission for Discipline went as far as calling him “tyrannical” in a statement. Formerly a close ally of General Secretary Xi Jinping, Lu has been instrumental in shaping China’s internet policies, most notably its increasingly harsh censorship regulations. Before his fall, Lu was hosted by Mark Zuckerberg on Facebook’s campus, and successfully courted Google’s Sundar Pichai and Apple’s Tim Cook to his World Internet Conference in Wuzhen.

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