China to hunt down runaway corrupt officials  

中纪委: 加大国际追逃力度 让外逃贪官无所遁形

China's central discipline inspection agency on Thursday hosted a meeting with police, judicial, foreign affairs and national security departments about stepping up the hunt for corrupt officials fleeing abroad.

Pursuing fugitive officials and retrieving their illegal properties from abroad are complicated tasks that need joint efforts of various departments, said Huang Shuxian, deputy head of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection of the Communist Party of China (CPC) and minister of supervision.

Huang urged departments to not only do their own job but also to share information, communicate smoothly and work closely with other departments.

Officials from the Supreme People's Court, the Supreme People's Procuratorate, the People's Bank of China as well as the ministries of foreign affairs, public security, national security and justice briefed about their work in this field.

China has been running a large-scale campaign against corruption since the current leadership took office in November 2012.

Many corrupt officials were known to hide their properties abroad and have their family immigrate to escape scrutiny and punishment. Due to difficulties in international extradition and cross-border investigation, only a few wanted officials have been captured and brought back home.

The total number of corrupt officials currently on the run aboard is not available.

But, according to the report delivered by Procurator-General Cao Jianmin to the annual parliamentary session in March, the country seized 762 runaway corrupt officials at home and abroad in 2013 and retrieved illegal properties worth 10.14 billion yuan ($1.64 billion).