China Says Ex-Top Internet Regulator Under Investigation 21 November 2017

China says ex-top internet regulator under investigation 21 November 2017

filter and censor their countries' internet.

He wielded enormous power over what 700 million Chinese internet users could view online and acted as gatekeeper for technology companies wishing to do business in China.

No details were given in Tuesday's announcement, which comes after a party congress at which President Xi Jinping was given a second five-year term as party chief. Lu is the most senior Chinese official to be investigated since the party congress closed late last month.

Lu was suddenly replaced as cyberspace chief in June last year by his deputy, Xu Lin. Lu held on to his concurrent position of deputy head of propaganda but kept what observers thought was an uncharacteristically low profile. In this Sept. 23, 2015, file photo, Chinese President Xi Jinping, center, talks with Facebook Chief Executive Appointed in 2014 as China's top internet regulator, Mark Zuckerberg, right, as Lu Wei, left, China's Internet Lu held high-profile meetings with top executives czar, looks on during a gathering of CEOs and other from foreign technology and internet companies, executives at Microsoft's main campus in Redmond, Wash. China's former top internet regulator and censor including Apple chief executive Tim Cook, Lu Wei is being investigated by the ruling Communist Microsoft's Satya Nadella, and Facebook founder Party's anti-corruption arm, the agency said Tuesday, Mark Zuckerberg. Nov. 21, 2017. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren, Pool, File) Lu took a hard line in demanding tough security checks on imported foreign tech products and keeping out foreign internet companies and social China's former top internet regulator and censor is networks like Facebook in the name of preserving being investigated by the ruling Communist Party's social stability. anti-corruption arm, the agency said Tuesday. Lu's departure from the position has not led to any The party's anti-graft watchdog agency said in a changes or easing of such demands and brief statement on its website that Lu Wei is restrictions on information. suspected of "serious violations of discipline." Until Tuesday's announcement, Lu had been deputy In recent years China has pushed cybersecurity head of the party's propaganda department. regulations aimed at limiting technology imported from the West, which Beijing officials say is Lu was known as a hard-liner responsible for necessary given Edward Snowden's allegations of leading the government's efforts to tighten control U.S. spying via "backdoors" inserted in exported over domestic cyberspace and championing the U.S.-made hardware. party's position that governments have a right to

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Lu worked his way up the ranks of China's official Xinhua News Agency from a reporting job in the city of Guilin in southern Guangxi province in the early 1990s to becoming the agency's vice president from 2004 to 2011. He was vice mayor of Beijing from 2011 to 2013.

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