20 October 2018
Lu Wei, former head of Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC), has pleaded guilty to taking bribes amounting to US$4.6 million, according to provincial court authorities. His crimes spanned his decades-long career at state news agency Xinhua, the Beijing municipal party committee and government, the CAC and the party’s Central Publicity Department.
At the peak of his influence, he was listed by Time magazine in 2015 as one of the world’s 100 most influential people.
In February, he was denounced by the anti-corruption watchdog and was expelled from the party. The watchdog attacked his personal character by accusing him of extreme disloyalty, duplicity, trading power for sex and having a lack of self-control.
He was courted by many prominent technology executives like Apple chief executive Tim Cook and Facebook’s co-founder Mark Zuckerberg.
Xinhua news agency reported.
