Former Chinese internet chief under investigation for corruption

Lu Wei, a propaganda officer for China’s Communist party who in recent years personified its effort to shape the global internet, on Tuesday became the first major political figure to come under corruption scrutiny since President Xi Jinping’s second term began last month, The Wall Street Journal reports. Mr. Lu, a former director of China’s top internet regulator, is being investigated for alleged “serious violations of discipline,” the party’s disciplinary agency said in a one-sentence statement, using a common party euphemism to describe corruption. The 57-year-old’s political career has been under a cloud since he was removed as director of the Cyberspace Administration of China in June 2016, although he has kept his title as a vice minister at the party’s propaganda department. Mr. Lu’s apparent downfall is unlikely to herald a change in China’s cyberpolicies, as the strategies he helped articulate—all under the party rubric of “cyberspace sovereignty”—have only been heightened since his removal as internet czar.