China's anti-corruption watchdog revealed that since 2014, 2,442 people have been captured in the country's campaign to return fugitives who have fled overseas.
According to an article posted Friday by the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI) on its website, 2,442 people, including 397 state officials, were captured or returned from over 70 countries or regions and more than 8.5 billion yuan (1.2 billion U.S. dollars) of illegal assets have been recovered.
The article said that in the first 11 months this year, the "Sky Net" campaign alone has accounted for 908 returnees and recovered 2.3 billion yuan in illegal assets.
A total of 19 people named as China's top 100 fugitives released in an Interpol "red notice" have returned this year, bringing the total number of the people on the list who have returned so far to 37.
Last month, China's most wanted graft fugitive Yang Xiuzhu, who has been on the run for 13 years, finally returned to China and turned herself in to authorities.
Friday is the 13th International Anti-Corruption Day, which was designated by the United Nations General Assembly.
Liu Jianchao, CCDI international cooperation bureau director, was quoted in the article as saying that China is making waves in international anti-corruption cooperation.
He went on to say that China's ideas, measures and practices in fighting corruption are gradually being understood and accepted by the international community.
The article further mentioned that China has established special offices at central and local levels to assist the search for fugitives.
Also, a database have been established to manage information on corrupt officials who have fled overseas and a system to receive information from the public.
According to the article, anti-corruption and law enforcement cooperations with other countries such as the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand have also yielded positive results.
"No matter how far the fugitives have fled, how long they have been on the run or how hard it is, our efforts to chase them down will never stop," Liu said.
