DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Interpol gathered police chiefs from around the world in Dubai on Sunday to select a new president, months after the global crime-fighting agency’s former leader was abruptly arrested by China on corruption charges.

The agency is holding its first general assembly since its president, Meng Hongwei, who was also China’s vice minister of public security, went missing in September while on a trip to China.

After Interpol officials demanded answers from Beijing, and after Mr. Meng’s wife, Grace Meng, revealed he had sent her an emoji of a knife to signify danger, it emerged that Mr. Meng, a Chinese citizen, had been secretly detained.

The arrest of an official with decades of experience in Beijing’s security apparatus, who was at the head of an international organization, was a bold move even by the standards of the increasingly authoritarian system under the leadership of President Xi Jinping. China eventually said Mr. Meng was being investigated on charges of taking bribes and other crimes, as part of a sweeping anticorruption campaign under President Xi Jinping.