Beijing steps up efforts to hunt down fugitive officials
Staff Reporter 2013-06-04 15:07
A man passes an advert for an anti-graft campaign in Nanjing. (Photo/CFP)
China's government has stepped up its efforts to hunt down fugitive corrupt officials, improve mechanisms to prevent them from fleeing, and strengthen international cooperation to recover their overseas assets, the Beijing-based Economic Observer reports.
Some 1,100 Chinese public servants left the country last year during the Mid-Autumn Festival holiday which fell on Sept. 30 and the ensuing weeklong National Day holiday on Oct.1, with 714 confirmed to have fled overseas, the newspaper said.
The results were revealed after the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection of the Communist Party of China embarked on a new campaign targeting graft through special membership cards on May 30, aimed at preventing more corrupt officials from fleeing overseas. The last time the commission conducted such a campaign was 20 years ago.
However, it was still unknown how many officials had fled overseas with their assets after the government concluded the first round of a five-year plan for eliminating corruption last year.
Citing a related report, the newspaper said that during the period from late 2000 to 2011, inspectors arrested 18,487 public servants on suspicion of attempting to flee abroad.
After checking task reports, the newspaper found that the number of officials arrested for attempting to run away has been rising dramatically since 2007, with their numbers surging more than fourfold to 102.09 billion yuan in 2012, compared with 24.48 billion yuan in 2007.
A 2009 anti-corruption report cited related statistics, which showed that during the 1988-2002 period, a total of US$191.36 billion, averaging US$12.76 billion a year, was involved in cases of runaway officials.
In 2007, the government set up an anti-corruption task force dedicated to recovering assets of runaway corrupt officials and exchanging information on officials with foreign countries.
Since 2002, Beijing has signed 108 mutual legal assistance agreements with 70 countries and joined 25 international judicial assistance conventions. These moves allow the government to carry out international judicial assistance efforts with more than 160 countries and international organizations.
In addition, China has improved its monitoring mechanism for preventing corrupt officials from fleeing. It has also taken steps to strengthen cooperation with local governments in sharing information about fugitives.
Li Yongzhong, a scholar in the field of preventing official corruption, has revealed that Beijing is in talks with US authorities to find ways to repatriate officials who fled to the United States and it also seeking to sign an anti-graft agreement with the country. The United States has reportedly promised that if Beijing can prove that former officials who had moved to the US were corrupt, and the money they transferred from China was obtained illegally, they would send back such individuals unconditionally.
There are still many flaws in the systems, mechanisms and laws to effectively prevent corrupt officials from fleeing overseas and punishing them. There is also plenty of room for improvement in international cooperation in this area.
