BEIJING, March 28 — China has said it is investigating other public security officials to "thoroughly eliminate the poisonous influence” of former Interpol chief Meng Hongwei, who is facing possible graft charges.

Meng — who had also served as vice minister of public security — has been expelled from the Communist Party and his official positions while his case was handed over to prosecutors.

He had vanished last September during a visit to China from France, where Interpol is based, and was later accused of accepting bribes.

The Public Security Ministry said in a lengthy statement late yesterday that it held an internal meeting that "stressed that it is necessary to completely and thoroughly eliminate the poisonous influence of Meng Hongwei”.

It said that Meng’s expulsion was "all his own doing” and that he had used state assets to support his family’s extravagant lifestyle, echoing a party anti-graft watchdog statement announcing his expulsion yesterday.

All party cadres involved in Meng’s case will be dealt with, the statement said, adding that it is "necessary to thoroughly eliminate the legacy of Zhou Yongkang and Meng Hongwei”.

A former security tsar, Zhou was sentenced to life in prison in 2015 for bribery, abuse of power and leaking state secrets.

Meng was appointed vice security minister by Zhou in 2004.

Meng and Zhou are part of a growing group of Communist Party cadres caught in President Xi Jinping’s anti-graft campaign, which critics say has served as a way to remove the leader’s political enemies.

More than one million officials have been punished so far during Xi’s six-year tenure. — AFP