Closing in on fugitives

As Chinese nationals Zhang Fulin and his wife were making supper at their home in the Vietnamese city of Mong Cai on March 27, they heard police shouting their names in Putonghua. It was at that moment they knew they could no longer flee the charges they were facing, which stemmed from an illegal banking operation in Wenzhou, Zhejiang Province.

Zhang, 46, the former chairman of the Wenzhou Mincheng Financing Guarantee Company, had amassed a fortune from friends and relatives with the promise of repayments with large quantities of interest.

When he was hit by liquidity problems during the city's private lending crisis in 2011, Zhang knew he would be caught for the crime of illegally collecting public savings.

Having amassed 100 million yuan ($16.12 million) in debt, and fearing the inevitable lawsuits that would follow, Zhang fled to Vietnam by boat and his wife followed him in January this year.

The couple rarely left their shabby rental house during their two months together on the run in Vietnam. Zhang had to change his phone number more than 20 times and his wife dissolved into tears almost every day due to the fear of being caught - a fear which proved to be valid.

The arrest was made after a two-month joint investigation between police in the border cities of Dongxing, in the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region and Mong Cai, Vietnam. Wenzhou police assisted in the investigation.

It was the latest example of cross-border police cooperation, which has accelerated in recent years, particularly in relation to economic crimes.

The Ministry of the Public Security stated that in 2012, they arrested and brought back 331 suspects from abroad and transferred some 25 foreign fugitives to other countries, the Xinhua News Agency reported in February 2013.

Transnational hide-and-seek

Tracking down suspects abroad is a difficult task for Chinese authorities, as it is essential for multiple departments and judicial organs in China and overseas to share and verify evidence, a Guangxi police official surnamed Chen, who has been involved in arresting and hunting fugitive suspects in Vietnam, told the Global Times.

Chen said that sometimes the evidence which was verified by Chinese police could be rejected by Vietnamese police. In those cases, the police might need to do more investigation, slowing the process.

A scholar, surnamed Wu, from the People's Public Security University of China who specializes in cross-border police cooperation, told the Global Times that the process made some suspects think it was possible to evade charges by fleeing abroad.

Chen did, however, point out that due to the increasing cooperation between China and other countries, the trust between the different judicial organs was increasing, and in some cases, the process of tracking and arresting suspects was becoming more efficient.