China sends ex-colleagues of former internet tsar Lu Wei to ‘education sessions’

As China’s former internet tsar Lu Wei awaits trial on corruption charges, his former acquaintances and colleagues have been warned not to follow in his footsteps amid a continuing campaign to erase his legacy.

Lu, 58, was officially put under investigation in November after the Communist Party congress, becoming the first “tiger” – a name used to describe senior officials accused of corruption – to be targeted during President Xi Jinping’s second term as party secretary.

Now authorities in his native Anhui, where Lu began his career, have tracked down his former colleagues and contacts and ordered them to attend “education sessions” to discuss his alleged misdeeds as part of a campaign that began in the province in May.

The move was mentioned in an article published Tuesday on the website of China’s top anti-corruption agency, the National Supervisory Commission.

Lu spent two years teaching at a high school before he left Anhui to work in state media, ultimately becoming deputy chief of the Xinhua News Agency. He became deputy mayor of Beijing in 2011 before he was appointed China’s top internet regulator in 2013 – until he suddenly stepped down in June 2016.

“After the internal criticism and education sessions, I have a better knowledge of Lu’s two-faced nature, and have reflected deeply on my sycophantic and pandering working style,” some of Lu’s old friends were collectively quoted as saying in a recent post on the website of the provincial anti-corruption body. “[We] must stay politically focused and voluntarily fend off a culture of wrongdoing.”