The circumstances under which Meng disappeared highlight the authority the party still wields over Meng, even while he served as the head of a supposedly politically neutral institution. His disappearance first became known when his wife reported his absence to police in France, where the couple lives, and the French police launched an investigation. His wife had begun to worry for his safety when she received a knife emoji in a text message from her husband, taking it as a coded warning that all was not well on his trip home.

On October 7, almost two weeks after Meng went missing, Chinese authorities announced that they were charging Meng with bribery. After coming to power in 2012, Chinese President Xi Jinping launched a sweeping anti-corruption crackdown that has felled thousands of mid-level party cadres and numerous high-ranking officials.

“Meng’s arrest seems like a powerful demonstration of China’s commitment to rooting out corruption, even when it can cost them the directorship of an important international vehicle,” Dimitar Gueorguiev, who teaches Chinese governance at Syracuse University, told The Guardian.

But critics say the anti-corruption campaign is also used as cover for political purges intended to strengthen Xi’s grip on power. There are hints of a political element in Meng’s detention; when announcing the charges against Meng, Chinese authorities also stressed the need for “absolute loyal political character.” Meng is now being held in a custody system notorious for torture, abuse, and denial of access to lawyers or a fair trial. It is certainly normal for any country to prosecute government officials for corruption; it is not normal to detain them without notice or charge, then thrust them into a system without fair representation or transparency.

That raises serious questions about the fitness of any member of the Chinese Communist Party to serve in a leadership position in international organizations. Meng’s detention is a clear sign that any party members abroad, no matter how high their profile or how important political neutrality is to their position, are still subject to the will and demands of the party—a party that’s willing to punish them at any cost if they stray. This is far truer under Xi than under his recent predecessors because one of Xi’s top goals has been to revitalize the once-moribund party, reestablish it as the main guiding force in China, and double down on party discipline.

It’s clear that Meng was the party’s man at Interpol. During his tenure as Interpol president, Meng simultaneously served as a vice minister in China’s public-security bureau, the country’s chief law-enforcement institution. It’s unlikely he could have risen to such a high position without demonstrating years of loyalty to the party. And the public-security bureau, while responsible for ensuring public order and safety, is also behind illegal detentions and numerous other injustices visited upon a populace with few civil-rights protections. That means Meng spent his career climbing the ladder within a sometimes ruthless organization.