2015年CRI China to Further Boost International Cooperation on Anti-Corruption Campaign: Officials

A series of actions have been taken in China to fight against corruption 2, and observers say they have made much progress.

Earlier this year, China launched an anti-corruption campaign called 'Skynet', a move designed to capture corrupt 1 officials accused of economic crimes having fled overseas.

As of the end of November, over 800 such fugitives 3 have been brought back, with 1.2 billion yuan, or over 180 million U.S. dollars recovered.

Among those captured, 18 of them are also on a 'red-notice' list published during the 'Skynet' campaign detailing 100 most wanted corrupt fugitives still at large.

One of the most recent cases involved Huang Yurong, a former local official suspected of bribery 4 in central China's Henan Province.

Huang surrendered herself to the police and returned voluntarily last week after being at large in the U.S. for 13 years.

Deng Zhaofeng, an official from China's Ministry 5 of Public Security, said an increasing number of countries have actively 6 cooperated and pledged to provide no harbor for such fugitives.

"We take several measures like extradition 7, repatriation 8, persuasion 9 for suspects to return to China so as to seize overseas economic crimes suspects. So far, we have repatriated 10 two escaped suspects from the United States, and extradited six from Italy, Greece, Bulgaria, Spain and Hungary. "

Li Chengyan, Director of Research Center for Government Integrity Building at Peking University, believed that the achievements can provide reference and experience for further deepening cooperation and creating cooperative avenues between China and other countries.

"We will unceasingly enhance research on international cooperation during manhunts in the future, and discuss carefully and conscientiously 11 the implementation 12 of relevant laws as well as the United Nations Convention against Corruption, including what Transparency International has contributed. All those will lay a solid foundation for our next operations."

China has concluded more than 30 extradition and 50 criminal judicial 13 assistance treaties with other countries.

Liu Jianchao, deputy head of China's National Bureau of Corruption Prevention says the country cannot stay out of the cooperative efforts of anti-corruption and has been playing a significant role in the global anti-corruption campaign.

"First, we have strengthened bilateral 14 exchanges with other countries. We also signed memorandums with more than 20 countries and more are willing to sign with us. Second, we have been active in participating in multilateral mechanisms 15, forums 16 and conferences to discuss international cooperation against corruption. Third, China is also playing an active role in the broader anti-corruption field."

In 2014, the Beijing Declaration on Fighting Corruption was passed at the APEC meeting held in Beijing. The first international anti-corruption initiative drafted by China.

The APEC members adopted the declaration to fight corruption through extradition, judicial assistance and more flexible legal measures. An informal network was also set up for sharing information among anti-corruption and law enforcement authorities in the Asia-Pacific region, based in Beijing.

For CRI, I'm Xie Cheng.