Lu is charged with accepting money and property worth more than $4.6 million.
China’s state news agency Xinhua announced that Lu Wei, China’s former internet czar, went on trial on October 19 at the Intermediate People’s Court of Ningbo in Zhejiang province. According to Xinhua, Lu pleaded guilty to bribery in court.
In front of “60 people including national and local legislators, political advisors, press and members of the public,” Lu “made a final statement, pleaded guilty and expressed remorse in court,” Xinhua said. “The verdict will be announced in due course.”
As The Diplomat has been closely following, China established the Office of the Central Leading Group for Cyberspace Affairs, or the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) in 2014. Lu was appointed as the first director of the office. The CAC functions both as a government organ and a Party organ; this made Lu extremely powerful over China’s internet industry. He was thus called China’s internet czar. For example, most U. S. internet industry leaders, including Apple chief executive Tim Cook and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, had conducted high-profile meetings with Lu, in an attempt to charm the Chinese government.
In 2015, Lu was even listed as one of Time magazine’s 100 most influential people in the world.
However, in 2016, Lu was abruptly removed from his position as director of the internet office, although he still retained his position as vice minister of the Chinese Communist Party’s propaganda department.
