China pursues fugitive corrupt officials via overseas courts

Lack of extradition treaties prolongs hunt: experts

China is starting to repatriate corrupt officials who fled to the US and Canada to escape prosecution, despite the lack of extradition treaties with the two nations, a senior Ministry of Foreign Affairs official said Wednesday.

Other legal means, including deportation of illegal immigrants or prosecuting suspects in local courts, can be used in the absence of such treaties, Xu Hong, Director-General of the Department of Treaty and Law of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said during a press conference in Beijing on the transnational manhunt for criminal suspects.

The lack of extradition treaties remains a major obstacle for anti-graft cooperation between China and countries like the US and Canada. This means that China can only resort to alternatives to chase fugitives and assets, such as suing the suspects in the US or taking advantage of illegal immigration regulations.

Since the July launch of Fox Hunt 2014, the code name for the international manhunt seeking officials wanted in connection with corruption investigations in China, 288 suspects have been nabbed overseas. A total of 84 suspects were seized from developed countries such as the US, Canada, Japan and Belgium, the Xinhua News Agency reported on November 17. Others came from nations like Thailand and South Korea.

December 1 is the deadline for escaped economic crime suspects to surrender themselves for a lenient punishment, Chinese authorities announced in October.

Due to a lack of understanding of China's legal system, said Xu, countries like the US and Canada were "passive" in signing extradition treaties with China. The two North American nations are prime destinations for corrupt officials, and extradition has always been difficult. Experts in international law say that repatriating suspects by resorting to other legal methods will be laborious.

"The major problem is that both methods require lots of evidence the Chinese government will find very difficult to collect, because the suspects have already covered their tracks in most cases," Huang Feng, director of the Institute for International Criminal Law at Beijing Normal University, told the Global Times.

Many fugitives fled to North America using counterfeit identity documents, which is why China is able to appeal to authorities on the grounds that the fugitives are illegal immigrants, Huang said.

The masses of evidence required and the complicated collection process will prolong legal proceedings in the US and Canada, with it sometimes taking decades to finally repatriate suspects. With an extradition treaty, the process would be much easier, Huang said.

Notorious smuggling kingpin Lai Changxing was repatriated to China in 2011, 12 years after fleeing to Canada, after China reportedly agreed not to sentence him to death. He was handed a life sentence for smuggling and bribery in 2012.

China had signed extradition treaties with 39 countries, including France and Italy and signed mutual legal assistance agreements with 52 countries like the US, Canada and Australia as of November, Xu said.

Xu said that countries like the US, which is still not ready to sign an extradition treaty with China, should reform their domestic law to better cooperate with China.

"In a bid to overcome obstacles, these countries should firstly strengthen their political will and abandon prejudice. At the same time, China needs to appropriately address judicial obstacles in a pragmatic and feasible way," Xu added.

As the two legal alternatives are difficult to pursue, China should devote greater efforts to sharing forfeited assets with the US and Canada, Kwok Man-wai, former UN anti-corruption expert and former deputy commissioner of the Hong Kong Independent Commission against Corruption, told the Global Times.

Sharing forfeited assets would encourage other countries to help China recover illicit money, but signing an extradition treaty remains the preferred solution.

China said earlier this month that it will offer up to 80 percent of forfeited assets to countries that help recover illegally transferred wealth.

Chinese President Xi Jinping has recently been pushing international anti-corruption cooperation. During a trip to Australia, New Zealand and Fiji last week, Xi urged these countries to strengthen law enforcement cooperation with China.

China has also helped forge a cross-border law enforcement network to strengthen transnational anti-corruption cooperation in the Asia-Pacific region, which was adopted by leaders at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation meeting held in Beijing earlier this month.

Xinhua contributed to this story