{"id":3132,"date":"2016-11-11T01:28:27","date_gmt":"2016-11-11T01:28:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.iuhrdf.org\/en\/2016\/11\/11\/chinese-security-official-elected-interpol-chief\/"},"modified":"2016-11-11T01:28:27","modified_gmt":"2016-11-11T01:28:27","slug":"chinese-security-official-elected-interpol-chief","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/chinese-security-official-elected-interpol-chief\/","title":{"rendered":"Chinese security official elected Interpol chief"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A top Chinese security minister has been elected president of the international crime fighting and police cooperation organization Interpol.<\/p>\n<p>Hong Kong (CNN)A top Chinese security minister&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/INTERPOL_HQ\/status\/796554907775942657\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">has been elected<\/a>&nbsp;president of the international crime fighting and police cooperation organization Interpol.<\/p>\n<p>Meng Hongwei, China&#39;s vice minister for public security and a former head of Interpol China, took the post Thursday at the organization&#39;s general assembly in Bali, Indonesia.<\/p>\n<p>According to a statement from Interpol, he said he stood ready to do everything he could towards the cause of policing the world. &quot;We currently face some of the most serious global public security challenges since World War Two,&quot; said Mr Meng.<\/p>\n<p>The move could bolster China&#39;s efforts to repatriate fugitive officials but critics have voiced concern that Beijing could use the crime-fighting body to track down dissidents based overseas.<\/p>\n<p>He is the first Chinese official to become Interpol president,&nbsp;<a href=\"http:\/\/news.xinhuanet.com\/english\/2016-11\/10\/c_135819469.htm\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">according to Xinhua<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Interpol&#39;s secretary general is responsible for overseeing the day-to-day work of the organization, currently Jurgen Stock.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-lang=\"en\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\"><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/China?src=hash\">#China<\/a>&#39;s Vice Minister for Public Security, Meng Hongwei, elected on Thur as President of Int\u2019l Criminal Police Organization <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/INTERPOL_HQ\">@INTERPOL_HQ<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/VGmP3HpDK2\">pic.twitter.com\/VGmP3HpDK2<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; People&#39;s Daily,China (@PDChina) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/PDChina\/status\/796585818022432768\">November 10, 2016<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h3>Concerns<\/h3>\n<p>The election of a Chinese policeman to head the world&#39;s largest law enforcement agency is highly concerning, said Nicholas Bequelin, Amnesty International regional director for East Asia.<\/p>\n<p>&quot;(This is) someone who presides over a police force notorious for human rights abuses and is a tool for political enforcement of a one party system,&quot; he told CNN.<\/p>\n<p>Bequelin also pointed to previous incidents where China has sought to use Interpol red notices &#8212; which place people on global wanted lists &#8212; against political dissidents.<\/p>\n<p>By James Griffiths, CNN<br \/>\nUpdated 6:47 AM ET, Thu November 10, 2016 <\/p>\n<p>According to Article 3 of Interpol&#39;s Constitution, &quot;it is strictly forbidden for the organization to undertake any intervention or activities of a political, military, religious or racial character.&quot;<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-lang=\"en\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\"><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/bequelin\">@bequelin<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/PatrickPoon\">@PatrickPoon<\/a> If you are a Chinese Official you must be a member of CCP. Includes China Foreign Diplomats etc etc<\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Chris Jones (@himderfella) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/himderfella\/status\/796651753064239104\">November 10, 2016<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>One Chinese dissident&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.icij.org\/project\/interpols-red-flag\/interpols-red-notices-used-some-pursue-political-dissenters-opponents\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">placed on an Interpol red notice<\/a>&nbsp;by China is Dolkun Isa, despite his being granted political asylum by Germany, according to International Consortium of Investigative Journalists.<\/p>\n<p>Isa is head of the World Uyghur Congress, which speaks on behalf of Uyghurs, a Turkic-speaking, largely Muslim minority living in China&#39;s Xinjiang province.<\/p>\n<p>Western governments have long refused to enforce the notice against Isa, but in 2016, he was&nbsp;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.globaltimes.cn\/content\/980089.shtml\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">denied a visa to visit India<\/a>&nbsp;due to his status. Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Hong Lei&nbsp;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.fmprc.gov.cn\/mfa_eng\/xwfw_665399\/s2510_665401\/t1352614.shtml\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">justified this<\/a>&nbsp;on the grounds that Isa is &quot;wanted for violent terrorist activities.&quot;<\/p>\n<h3>Foxhunt<\/h3>\n<p>As well as targeting dissidents, China has long pushed for international cooperation in seeking repatriation of corrupt officials who have fled overseas.<\/p>\n<p>Operation Foxhunt has seen more than 2,000 &quot;economic fugitives&quot;, including 342 former officials, returned to China since 2014,&nbsp;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.chinadaily.com.cn\/china\/2016-09\/05\/content_26697231.htm\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">according to the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&quot;Western countries can&#39;t become &#39;safe havens&#39; for corrupt fugitives. No matter where they have escaped to, we will try every means to bring them back,&quot; Chinese President Xi Jinping said in 2014.<\/p>\n<p>Bequelin said that &quot;nobody is opposed to China exercising leadership roles in international organizations if it is done in a way that is in line with good practice.&quot;<\/p>\n<p>&quot;But there are many areas where China&#39;s own record is worrying in that respect and policing would definitely come at the top of this list,&quot; he added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A top Chinese security minister has been elected president of the international crime fighting and police cooperation organization Interpol.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":3131,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"topic":[],"class_list":["post-3132","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3132","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3132"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3132\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3131"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3132"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3132"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3132"},{"taxonomy":"topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/topic?post=3132"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}