China promotes high-profile law enforcer working with US in fentanyl fight to senior police job

Hu Binchen, director of International Cooperation Bureau and international face of China’s security forces, elevated in Ministry of Public Security
Highly decorated Liu Zhongyi, director of Criminal Investigation Bureau and famed for solving series of cold cases, also appointed assistant minister

China’s Communist Party

William Zheng

Published: 3:32pm, 12 Apr 2024

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China has promoted a veteran police officer who oversees cooperation with the US in the fight against fentanyl as assistant public security minister.

The promotion of Hu Binchen, the 53-year-old director of the International Cooperation Bureau of the Ministry of Public Security, to assistant minister rank and as member of the ministry’s Communist Party committee, was announced by the State Council, China’s cabinet, on Tuesday.

The ministry also promoted Liu Zhongyi, 59, director of its Criminal Investigation Bureau, to the same position, according to the announcement.

The promotion of Hu, who is widely regarded as the international face of China’s security forces, came as China and the United States renewed bilateral law enforcement and security engagement following an ice-breaking summit between Chinese President Xi Jinping and his United States counterpart Joe Biden in San Francisco in November.

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In January, Hu was among two Chinese officials who jointly launched the US-China Counternarcotics Working Group during a visit to Beijing by the US deputy assistant to the president and deputy homeland security adviser Jen Daskal.

Hu first caught international media attention in November 2021 when he gained one of two seats representing Asia on Interpol ’s executive committee, despite allegations by international human rights groups and lawmakers over human rights abuses in China. At the time, Hu was the International Cooperation Bureau’s deputy director.

Three years earlier, China’s former Interpol president Meng Hongwei – who was then Hu’s senior at the ministry – disappeared during a trip back to China halfway through his term heading the global body.

It later emerged that Meng had been detained and, after being investigated for corruption by the Communist Party’s disciplinary watchdog, was sentenced to 13½ years in jail. During his detention, Interpol received Meng’s resignation under mysterious circumstances.

Hu holds a master’s degree in criminology from the University of Cambridge and has spent his career working in international police cooperation for China, according to his official resume.

He served as police counsellor at the Chinese embassy in the US around 2014 after serving as director of the US and Oceania division of the ministry’s International Cooperation Bureau.

The appointment comes as a growing number of Chinese illegal immigrants are passing through the US-Mexico border, a development Beijing has pledged to crack down on.

China and US vow closer cooperation in fighting America’s fentanyl crisis

US deputy secretary of state Kurt Campbell’s has said that the large number of Chinese “economic migrants” heading to the US in recent months is “gathering concern”.

Asked about the remarks on Wednesday, Chinese foreign ministry’s spokeswoman Mao Ning said “China opposes and firmly cracks down on all forms of illegal migration”.

Liu Zhongyi is a highly decorated crime buster in China from northeastern Heilongjiang province. After decades working in his home province’s police force, He was transferred to the Ministry of Public Security’s Criminal Investigation Bureau in 2011, rising to become its director in 2019.

There, he helped to solve unsolved murder cases, in particular a series of rapes and murders in the city of Baiyin in Gansu province between 1988 and 2022.

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