Harsher rules to prevent officials' flight

A senior official has called for improved policies and methods to prevent government officials suspected of misconduct from escaping overseas.

"We should set up a more tight-knit and effective system to prevent lawless state functionaries from fleeing overseas by improving policies concerning state personnel going aboard," said Gan Yisheng, vice secretary of the Communist Party of China's Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI).

Gan made the remarks at a meeting held this week by the CCDI and the Ministry of Supervision. Information from the meeting was revealed in a statement released Thursday via the ministry's website.

Calling for equal efforts in preventing suspected offenders from fleeing and pursuing escapees abroad, Gan urged related departments to focus on officials' registry records and the management of their licenses and documents.

In 2007, China first set up a mechanism aiming to ensure coordinated efforts from various departments to prevent state functionaries suspected of disciplinary violations or crimes from escaping overseas.

These departments have been working on keeping track of officials' overseas trips and their spouses and children's emigration status. Other moves, including special investigations on money laundering and transnational financial supervision, were also launched to prevent violators' overseas transfers of illegal proceeds.

Sending family members abroad is a usual move for under-suspicion officials before their own runaway. For example, Zhou Jinhuo, former director of the Industry and Commerce Bureau of east China's Fujian Province, tried to flee overseas in June 2006, when he found himself being investigated by anti-graft agencies.

Zhou was caught in the southwest border province of Yunnan after police tracked a call in which he revealed his whereabouts. His wife had emigrated to the United States previously.