The president of Interpol was reported missing after traveling home to China, according to French authorities investigating his disappearance. French officials said the wife of Meng Hongwei, who heads the international police organization but doesn’t oversee day-to-day operations, contacted French police Thursday night to say she hadn’t heard from him since he left France for China in late September. His wife reported having received threats over social networks and by phone, France’s Interior Ministry said, and police are now providing her with security. Scores of senior Chinese officials have disappeared temporarily in recent years as part of a high-priority anticorruption drive, with some being released later without explanation and others being sentenced to long prison terms. Unlike those officials, whose portfolios largely center on domestic affairs, Mr. Meng presided over an international organization. His absence is raising questions not only about its circumstances but also about Beijing’s concerted effort to place senior officials in leading positions at international bodies. “There will be a public-relations job for China to explain that it is absolutely right and proper that Chinese people should continue to be appointed to senior positions in international organizations,” said Rod Wye, who served as a first secretary in the British Embassy in China in the 1980s and ’90s. He called Mr. Meng’s absence “unprecedented.” Mr. Meng’s exact whereabouts couldn’t be ascertained on Friday. “He definitely arrived in China,” said one of the French officials. “We’re sure of that. After that we don’t know.” Mr. Meng’s role as president largely involves oversight of Interpol and presiding over meetings of its general assembly and executive committee. A secretary-general runs daily operations of the organization, which tracks suspects and missing persons across international borders and describes its role as enabling police around the world to work together. Interpol, in a statement, said it is “aware of media reports in connection with the alleged disappearance” of its president and called it “a matter for the relevant authorities in both France and China.” China’s national police ministry, where Mr. Meng concurrently serves as vice minister, didn’t respond to a faxed request to comment. His short official biography remained on the ministry’s website as of late Friday. China’s antigraft agency, the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, didn’t respond to a request for comment about Mr. Meng and hadn’t posted a notice about him on its website, the way it usually discloses investigations into leading officials. As China’s economic interests have swelled globally over the past decade, Beijing has sought greater diplomatic sway and has seen the maneuvering of Chinese officials into top positions at international bodies as a way to influence global rule-making. Chinese officials hold senior posts at the International Monetary Fund, at the United Nations and at global standards-setting bodies like the International Telecommunication Union. China also provides more peacekeeping troops to U.N. missions than any of the other four permanent members of the Security Council, with Chinese peacekeepers having died in South Sudan and Mali. Beijing has accelerated this global influence effort in recent years under President Xi Jinping. During Mr. Xi’s second full year in office in 2014, the Communist Party’s agenda-setting Central Committee set a goal to “vigorously participate in the formulation of international norms” and “strengthen our country’s discourse power and influence in international legal affairs.” At the same time, Mr. Xi was vigorously prosecuting the anticorruption drive to eliminate the rampant graft that was corroding the party’s public support and to purge officials standing in his way of consolidating power. Most officials and many leading executives in China belong to the party, and under its strict disciplinary rules, they must submit to the often secretive investigations when required. That has led to lengthy unexplained disappearances that often end in show trials. Steve Tsang, director of the China Institute at London’s School of Oriental and African Studies, said while it is unclear what happened to Mr. Meng, “it is extremely unusual for someone nominated by the Chinese government to become head of Interpol to then find themselves in disfavor.” If Mr. Meng resurfaces it wouldn’t be a surprise to see him in a jumpsuit, he said. “Chinese justice works in a more predictable way.” Mr. Tsang cautioned, though, that it would be premature to assess whether Mr. Meng’s fate would have wider fallout on Beijing’s courting of international organizations. Ho-Fung Hung, a sociologist and China expert at Johns Hopkins University, said that if Mr. Meng has been detained, then international organizations are likely to be alarmed that their senior Chinese staff could be snatched away without notice. A risk, Mr. Hung said, is that the detained Chinese nationals might be subject to pressure and “that the Chinese government would easily extract from them sensitive and confidential information they’re exposed to in those organizations.” China’s influence in international bodies hasn’t been appreciably diminished in recent years despite U.S. federal indictments against two businessmen with ties to Beijing on separate charges they bribed U.N. officials and African politicians. The businessmen denied the charges. Mr. Meng’s appointment as president of Interpol for a four-year term in 2016 followed a lobbying campaign among the police organization’s 192 member countries. Interpol specializes in tracking suspects and missing persons across international borders and describes its role as enabling police around the world to work together. His ascension came as President Xi’s antigraft campaign was focusing on the return of fugitive Chinese officials and executives who had fled abroad. Dozens of Chinese on a most-wanted list of economic criminals issued by Beijing have either come back voluntarily or been returned by foreign governments in recent years. These returns have been heralded by the Chinese government as victories in the anticorruption drive. Mr. Meng’s appointment prompted an outcry by human-rights groups concerned that he would try to use Interpol to hunt down political critics of the Chinese government. In April 2017, China’s Foreign Ministry said Interpol issued an international arrest notice for Guo Wengui, a Chinese real-estate tycoon and critic of the government. From exile in New York, Mr. Guo took to social media to allege high-level corruption within the highest circles of the Communist Party. Beijing later accused Mr. Guo of crimes ranging from fraud to kidnapping and rape—allegations he denied. Mr. Meng spent his career in the Public Security bureaucracy and had served as an assistant to the minister and headed Interpol’s China branch. Next month, he turns 65, the customary age for retirement for senior officials. Write to Nick Kostov at Nick.Kostov@wsj.com and Eva Dou at eva.dou@wsj.com<doc-sep>(CNN) Interpol said Saturday it has asked Chinese authorities for information about the agency's president, Meng Hongwei, who was reported missing Thursday. In statement posted to Twitter, Interpol Secretary General Jurgen Stock said, "Interpol has requested through official law enforcement channels clarification from China's authorities on the status of Interpol President Meng Hongwei." "Interpol's General Secretariat looks forward to an official response from China's authorities to address concerns over the President's well-being," the statement continued. Statement by INTERPOL Secretary General Jürgen Stock pic.twitter.com/bRXYjDMCsc — INTERPOL (@INTERPOL_HQ) October 6, 2018 Meng, according to Chinese state news agency Xinhua, was the first Chinese official to become president of Interpol, which is based in Lyon. He was not on French soil when he was last seen, according a senior French law enforcement official, who declined to say whether he was in China. Interpol, or the International Police Criminal Organization, facilitates international police cooperation. Read More<doc-sep>
Interpol has asked China for information about its missing Chinese president after he vanished on a trip home, citing concerns for his well-being. The Lyon-based international police agency said in a brief statement on Saturday that it used law enforcement channels to submit its request about the status of Meng Hongwei, 64. The agency "looks forward to an official response from China's authorities to address concerns over the president's well-being," the statement said. INTERPOL PRESIDENT MENG HONGWEI VANISHES DURING TRIP TO CHINA, OFFICIAL SAYS China, which is in the middle of a weeklong holiday, did not immediately respond to the request. Meng’s wife said she hasn’t heard from him since he left Lyon, France, at the end of September. France has launched its own investigation. French authorities said Meng boarded a plane and arrived in China but his whereabouts are unknown. Before taking over as Interpol's chief in 2016, Meng served as vice minister of public security in China, among other positions within China's security establishment. Meng is the first Chinese official to head Interpol. His term is set to last until 2020. RUSSIAN SPIES ACCUSED OF TARGETING WATCHDOG INVESTIGATING UK CHEMICAL ATTACKS, PROBE INTO MH-17 CRASH The South China Morning Post, a Hong Kong newspaper, has suggested that Meng may have been the latest target of an ongoing campaign against corruption in China. The paper reported that after landing, Meng was “taken away” for questioning by what it said were “discipline authorities.” The term usually describes investigators in the ruling Communist Party who probe graft and political disloyalty. His duties in China would have put him in close proximity to former leaders, some who fell afoul of Chinese leader Xi Jinping's campaign. He likely dealt extensively with former security chief Zhou Yongkang, now serving a life sentence for corruption. Fox News’ Greg Norman and the Associated Press contributed to this report.