Watchdog to issue new Interpol notices, improve intl ties
China's top disciplinary watchdog announced Wednesday that it will release a second list of Interpol Red Notices in 2016 to intensify its pursuit of fugitives. [Special coverage]
Local governments are asked to collect information on allegedly corrupt officials, Cai Wei, deputy director of the international cooperation bureau of the Communist Party of China's (CPC) Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI), said during an online interview published on the CCDI official website.
Strengthened management of the CCDI's information system will enable authorities to conduct a comprehensive search for the hide-outs of corrupt officials overseas, Cai said. The CCDI will add more wanted people to the Interpol Red Notice, Cai asserted, adding that the commission will take additional measures to hunt fugitives, such as freezing assets and using border control.
China released a list of 100 wanted fugitives in April 2015 as it stepped up its worldwide fugitive hunt. Some 60 percent of the fugitives are wanted for corruption and bribery, China News Service reported on Wednesday.
In addition to further promoting the operations of "Fox Hunt" and "Sky Net" in 2016, the CCDI is currently conducting a new operation to regulate wrongful passport applications and is holding training classes on overseas fugitive hunting.
"This is an effective system to supervise officials, since the exit and entry information of some corrupt officials was unclear," said Huang Feng, head of the Institute for International Criminal Law at Beijing Normal University, told the Global Times on Wednesday.
China apprehended 857 fugitives hiding overseas in the "Fox Hunt 2015" campaign against suspected economic criminals, according to the Ministry of Public Security.
Cai stressed that China will also strengthen international cooperation with other countries to hunt corrupt officials fleeing overseas.
He said China will take more practical action to deepen bilateral cooperation, such as holding conferences with Canada on hunting fugitives, signing memoranda of cooperation with Australia and allowing the China-US Joint Liaison Group Anti-Corruption Working Group to play a bigger role in operations.
"The obstacle to bilateral cooperation is that China has not signed extradition treaties with some major countries where most of the allegedly corrupt officials are hiding," Ren Jianming, an anti-corruption expert at Beihang University in Beijing, told the Global Times.
While long-held mistrust of and misapprehensions about China's legal system have made some countries hesitant to sign treaties with China, China can seek other cooperation mechanisms with different countries, Ren said.
He noted that it is necessary for China to demonstrate its achievements in global manhunts for corrupt individuals at more international meetings to win support from the international community. "Western countries need to learn that the anti-corruption campaign is not a political play, but rather fulfills the promise of the CPC to halt extensive corruption," said Ren.
