Cleaning the Security Apparatus Before the Two Meetings

On April 19 2020, Sun Lijun 孙力军 was put under investigation. Sun is the mishu of Meng Jianzhu 孟建柱, Party secretary of the Central Political and Legal Affairs Commission [zhengfa] from 2012 to 2017, and a close ally of Politburo member Han Zheng 韩正, who is also a full member of Jiang Zemin’s 江泽民 Shanghai Gang 上海帮. His arrest, which happened only one day after 15 pro-democracy activists were arrested in Hong Kong , almost coincided with his return from Wuhan – as part of the Covid-19 containment steering group 中央赴湖北指导组. To this effect, it is evident that Sun’s investigation and arrest have been in motion for quite a while now.

With Sun out of play, the former public security “tsar” Zhou Yongkang 周永康 has effectively lost most of his tentacles on the public security system. That said, Sun’s arrest might not even be the most important news shaking up the public security apparatus ahead of the upcoming “Two Meetings” 两会…