China anti-corruption agents net 288 fugitives who fled overseas

Many of those arrested were escaping Xi Jinping’s crackdown on graft

China’s anti-corruption dragnet spread its tentacles overseas with the capture of 288 fugitives suspected of committing economic crimes who had fled abroad to avoid capture under President Xi Jinping’s anti-graft crackdown.

Of those caught under Operation Foxhunt, 126 were brought back to China and 81 are suspected of being involved in financial cases worth more than 10 million yuan (€1.3 million) each, the ministry of public security said.

Many of those captured were alleged corrupt cadres who had fled to more than 40 countries, including the US, Canada, Australia and various southeast Asian nations.

China has official extradition treaties with 38 countries, but not the US, Canada and Australia, the three most popular destinations for suspected economic criminals.

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About 18,000 Chinese officials have fled overseas during the past two decades, and the Washington-based Global Financial Integrity Group reckons $1.08 trillion (€140 billion) was taken illegally out of China from 2002 to 2011.

However, last year, China implemented the United Nations Anti-Corruption Convention and began working with Canada and the United States to share forfeited assets in an effort to target international organised crime.

China can ask for “legal assistance” from nations that are signatories to the declaration.

In many cases, the suspects return to China of their own volition after having their assets seized.

This follows the use of more “carrot” and less “stick”, whereby fugitives who confess and return voluntarily will be given a lighter punishment.

If, for example, they give the money back and compensate those who lost money, they may receive shorter jail terms or even avoid punishment altogether for lesser offences.

While many fleeing officials have chosen Europe as their destination, more have fled to Asia-Pacific nations, especially those with large expatriate Chinese communities.

Official corruption is a major issue among ordinary people in China, and particularly galling, and potentially destablising for the ruling Communist Party, are officials who take money and move overseas.

Operation Fox Hunt was launched in July and since then China's Ministry of Public Security has sent 20 teams of investigators to Thailand, the Philippines, Malaysia, Cambodia and other neighbouring countries.

Mr Xi has waged a campaign against graft since he assumed control of the main offices of the party in late 2012.

Since the president made his pledge to root out graft in China, whether it involves massive wealth accumulated by the powerful “tigers” of the elite or smaller backhanders palmed over to the “flies” at the bottom of the Communist Party, tens of thousands of officials have been arrested in the country.