China sheds light on its quest to track down fleeing officials
Communist Party's anti-graft agency reveals how hundreds of suspects and their offshore assets were brought back to the mainland
A powerful mainland task force has revealed in detail for the first time how it tracked down allegedly corrupt fugitives abroad, bringing the suspects and their assets back to China even in the absence of extradition treaties.
The revelations come as President Xi Jinping steps up his crusade against graft in the Communist Party, military and official ranks.
The Ministry of Public Security launched "Operation Fox Hunt" last year to track down fleeing officials and since then more than 500 fugitives with over 3 billion yuan (HK$3.8 billion) in assets offshore have been returned to China, according to the authorities.
In an article posted on its website on Tuesday, the party's internal graft watchdog, the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, said the international operation was led by the Fugitive Repatriation and Asset Recovery Office, comprising officials from the CCDI, the judiciary and prosecutors, the ministries of foreign affairs, public security, state security and justice, and the People's Bank of China.
One of the operation's biggest problems is tracking down fugitives in the United States, Australia and Canada, which are attractive destinations for fleeing officials because they do not have extradition treaties with China.
The article said that in some cases China would send agents to persuade fugitives to end their exile, but in others it would provide evidence of criminal activity to host countries to repatriate them for illegal immigration directly or via a third country. The office also gave evidence so that host countries could prosecute the fugitives under local laws, the article said.
