Meng Hongwei, president of Interpol, the international police coordinating agency, has been arrested by the Chinese government. It is a stunning development: A man once heralded by Beijing for reaching the pinnacle of international law enforcement first disappeared and was then revealed to have been arrested on charges of corruption. The irony — a top law enforcement official arrested for breaking the law — is only exceeded by the chilling message sent by his detention: Nothing takes precedence over the Chinese Communist Party's self-perceived need to protect itself. Governments around the world, including Tokyo, must take note.

Meng had a distinguished career in China's security apparatus. He became vice minister of public security in 2004, promoted by Zhou Yongkang, then the minister of public security and one of the most powerful men in China. Zhou was one of the first casualties of President Xi Jinping's anticorruption campaign, whose arrest proved that no one was too senior in the party bureaucracy to be protected. (That Zhou supported Bo Xilai, whom Xi and his allies considered a rival for power, was another damning factor in his indictment.) Zhou was imprisoned for life on corruption charges in 2015.

Meng was one of the most visible figures in China's efforts to promote an image of international responsibility. He oversaw Chinese contributions to some United Nations peacekeeping operations, led a campaign to eradicate lawlessness in the Mekong River area in Southeast Asia, and guided Chinese efforts to track down Chinese officials and business people who had fled abroad amid suspicions of corruption.