Interpol president who vanished in China is accused of bribery and other crimes by Beijing as it is revealed he sent wife a final text with a knife emoji

  • Interpol chief Meng Hongwei was reported missing after returning to China
  • Wife Grace Meng said she hadn't heard from her husband since September 25
  • Beijing has now said he is being investigated for 'bribery and other crimes'
  • They said it has been cause by 'wilfulness and for bringing trouble upon himself'
  • Interpol received resignation Sunday, nearly two weeks after disappearance

The former president of Interpol, who has been reported missing while on a visit to his native China, is being investigated for bribery and other crimes, Beijing announced today.

Meng Hongwei, who only resigned as head of Interpol yesterday, vanished after sending his wife a WhatsApp message with a knife emoji two weeks ago. 

Beijing said Meng, who is also China's vice minister for public security, is being investigated due to his own 'wilfulness and for bringing trouble upon himself', but remained tight-lipped regarding his whereabouts.

The revelation that China's system of shady and often-arbitrary detentions could ensnare even a senior public security official with international stature has cast a shadow over the image Beijing has sought to cultivate in recent years as a modern country with the rule of law. 

Beijing said Meng Hongwei is being investigated due to his own 'wilfulness and for bringing trouble upon himself', but remained tight-lipped regarding his whereabouts 

Beijing said Meng Hongwei is being investigated due to his own 'wilfulness and for bringing trouble upon himself', but remained tight-lipped regarding his whereabouts 

A journalist holds Grace Meng's mobile phone, showing what she says is the last message exchanged with her husband: a text reading 'wait for my call' followed by a knife emoji

A journalist holds Grace Meng's mobile phone, showing what she says is the last message exchanged with her husband: a text reading 'wait for my call' followed by a knife emoji

The Chinese Ministry of Public Security released a statement on Monday, saying the investigation is a result of Meng's 'insistence of doing things his own way' and he 'only has himself to blame'.

They said the investigation into Meng's suspected acceptance of bribery and violation of law was 'very timely, completely correct and very wise' and 'fully demonstrates that anyone who violates the law must be severely prosecuted and severely punished'.   

Meng's unexplained disappearance in China late last month had prompted both the French government and Interpol to make their concerns for his wellbeing known publicly, which put pressure on Beijing.

On Sunday, Chinese authorities confirmed that Meng is being investigated over suspected violations of the law, and hours later Interpol confirmed Meng had resigned as president of the international police organisation.

'Today, Sunday 7 October, (at) the Interpol General Secretariat in Lyon, France received the resignation of Mr Meng Hongwei as President of Interpol with immediate effect,' Interpol said in a statement. 

Grace Meng read a statement during her press conference in Lyon but would not allow reporters to show her face, saying she feared for her safety and the safety of her two children

Grace Meng read a statement during her press conference in Lyon but would not allow reporters to show her face, saying she feared for her safety and the safety of her two children

Grace Meng, the wife of missing Interpol President Meng Hongwei, who does not want her face shown, consults her mobile phone in the lobby of a hotel in Lyon on Sunday 

Grace Meng, the wife of missing Interpol President Meng Hongwei, who does not want her face shown, consults her mobile phone in the lobby of a hotel in Lyon on Sunday 

Interpol said South Korean national Kim Jong Yang would becomes its acting president, while it would appoint a new president at a November meeting of the organisation in Dubai.

Earlier on Sunday, Meng Hongwei's wife Grace Meng revealed she has not heard from her husband since September 25. 

Making her first public comments on the mystery surrounding Meng's whereabouts, she told reporters in Lyon, France - where Interpol is based - that she thinks the knife was her husband's way of trying to tell her he was in danger. 

She said four minutes before Meng shared the emoji of the knife, he sent a message saying 'wait for my call'.  

She said she has had no further contact with him since the message that was sent on September 25.   

Interpol said on Saturday it has used law enforcement channels to inquire with China about Meng's status.

Grace Meng refused to speculate on what might have happened to him or whether he had been arrested, saying: 'In China, what happened, I'm not sure.'

Meng's wife said he had traveled back to China for work, after a visit to the Nordics.

'His job is very busy,' she said. 'We connected every day.'

She read a statement during her press conference in Lyon but would not allow reporters to show her face, saying she feared for her own safety and the safety of her two children.  

French police investigating the 64-year-old's disappearance have placed his family under special protection.

The country's interior ministry said they were under police supervision in Lyon after Meng's wife was threatened over the phone and on social media.

A source familiar with the investigation said the working assumption was that Meng had antagonised Chinese authorities and had been detained as a result. 

Previously, Interpol had said that reports about Meng's disappearance were 'a matter for the relevant authorities in both France and China.'

The organisation went out of its way to say that its secretary general, not Meng, was responsible for the day-to-day running of the agency.    

Meng is now the latest high-ranking official, and one with an unusually prominent international standing, to fall victim to a sweeping crackdown by China's ruling party.

In a sign of how seriously the authorities regard the case, Zhao Lezhi, the minister for public security, chaired a meeting in the early hours of Monday morning with senior officials of the ministry's party committee to discuss it. 

A statement on the ministry of public security's website provided no details about the bribes Meng allegedly took or the other crimes he is accused of, but it suggested that he is also being investigated for political lapses.

The 36-year-old actress was previously the highest paid Chinese actress following her role in X-Men (pictured)

News of Meng's apparent disappearance comes after Chinese officials announced that Hollywood star Fan Bingbing (pictured) had been ordered to pay millions of dollars in taxes 

It indicated that Meng, a member of the Communist Party, may have somehow been tainted by the former security chief and ex-Politburo Standing Committee member Zhou Yongkang, who is now serving a life sentence for corruption.

'We should resolutely oppose corruption and resolutely eliminate the pernicious influence of Zhou Yongkang,' it said.

Meng's various jobs likely put him in close contact with Zhou and other Chinese leaders in the security establishment, a sector long synonymous with corruption, opacity and human rights abuses.

Zhou and other senior figures prosecuted in Chinese president Xi Jinping's anti-corruption crackdown were mostly convicted of corruption but officials have since also said they were accused of 'conspiring openly to usurp party leadership'.

At Monday's meeting, officials were told that they 'must always maintain the political quality of being absolutely loyal to the party', the statement said. 

News of Meng's apparent disappearance comes after Chinese officials announced that Hollywood star Fan Bingbing, who also vanished without a trace several months ago, has been ordered to pay millions of dollars in alleged back taxes and penalties.

Fan took to social media for the first time in months on Wednesday to apologise to fans and the Communist Party for tax evasion, shortly after news broke that authorities had ordered her to pay nearly $130 million in back taxes and fines.

The 36-year-old took to China's Twitter-like Weibo to acknowledge her wrongs, beg for her supporters' forgiveness, and apologise to 'society, the friends who care about me, the public and the national tax authorities.'

'Without the Party and country's good policies, without the loving attention of the masses, there would be no Fan Bingbing,' she wrote to her 62 million followers.  

The actress, model and producer had been a ubiquitous household name in China for years and tasted Hollywood success with a role in the 2014 blockbuster 'X-Men: Days of Future Past.'

But she disappeared from the public eye and her once active social media presence went silent in May after allegations emerged that she had evaded taxes on a lucrative movie shoot, charges her studio called 'slander'.