Yueyang City Public Security Bureau, in central
China’s Hunan
Province, is under investigation for issuing no less than 230
passports to human traffickers in Guangdong
and Zhejiang
provinces, the Beijing News reported
Monday.
Liu Xiangjian, section chief of the bureau’s
Entry-exit Control Department, fled to the UK on October 30, one
day after he was questioned in connection with the issuance of
passports.
An insider told the newspaper that the Yueyang PSB
had been involved in issuing illegal passports since 1998, but its
activities had accelerated since the second half of last year.
At the end of 2003, UK authorities found that the
passports of many Chinese stowaways were issued in Yueyang. They
reported their discovery to China's Ministry of Public
Security.
From March 25 to June 25 this year, a nationwide
campaign codenamed “Spring Thunder” was carried out by seven state
ministries to crack down on illegal outbound service agencies.
During the campaign, when police in Xiamen, Fujian
Province, uncovered a human smuggling organization they found
large number of passports issued by Yueyang police. Although the
Xiamen authorities liaised with their Yueyang counterparts, they
were unable to obtain further information.
On October 23, police in Wenzhou, east China’s
Zhejiang Province, found more than 230 illegal passports in the
possession of a human smuggling group. Some 164 of the passports
had been issued in Yueyang. The Ministry of Public Security ordered
the Hunan authorities to investigate.
Liu Xiangjian, section chief of the Yueyang PSB
Entry-exit Control Department, fled to the UK on October 30, one
day after he, together with three vice section chiefs, was
questioned by the Party Committee of the Yueyang Police about
passport issuance.
On November 20, Zhang Lizhi, a vice section chief
in the Entry-exit Control Department, was detained as a lead
suspect, together with two other officers in her department. Zhang
was subsequently reported to have died in an accident on December
9, while she was in detention.
But Zhang's mother told the Beijing News
that her daughter was responsible for only one of many steps in the
passport issuance process and she had no ability to issue passports
herself.
Zhang's direct supervisor, Liu Xiangjian, oversaw
the entire issuance process. Zhang's mother said that the head of
the Yueyang PSB had once told Liu to take full responsibility for
the case and not get others into trouble.
The PSB insider claimed that Liu confessed to
having issued more than 230 illegal passports, for which he
received 300,000 yuan (US$36,000) from a human trafficker.
But the trafficker, when questioned by police in
Guangdong Province, confessed that he paid 150,000 yuan (US$18,000)
for each passport in Yueyang.
Liu Guoqiu, director of Yueyang PSB, resigned from his post on
December 7 and a new investigation team headed by Hunan’s
provincial police authority has been formed.
All local Yueyang police have been instructed to have no
involvement in the case, according to a senior official from the
provincial police authority, as reported on Friday by the
Beijing News.
The paper also quoted an official from Yueyang’s
Commission for Discipline Inspection of the Communist Party of
China as saying that the Yueyang prosecutor has ratified the arrest
of fugitive Liu Xiangjian, and the State Ministry of Public
Security is considering extradition.
(
Beijing News, translated by Wang Zhiyong for China.org.cn
December 24, 2004)