Speaking last month at a national meeting on the fight against economic crime, Public Security Minister Zhou Yongkang stressed that in the fight against ever-increasing economic crime, the nation must be on full alert to prevent suspects fleeing abroad with their ill-gotten gains. What's more, action should be taken without hesitation to secure the detention and trial of those who have already absconded.
Successful repatriation cases
According to Zhou, police departments have repatriated over 230 economic crime suspects who have fled China since 1998. They have been brought back from more than 30 countries and regions. However, some 500 are still at large and the total amount of money involved comes to 70 billion yuan (US$8.75 billion).
On May 19, corruption and embezzlement suspect Yang Zhongwan was extradited to Shanghai after living in exile for seven years to avoid punishment. Yang has been accused of embezzling public funds during the period 1993-1995 when he was the director of the Shanghai Nuclear Power Administration Office and general manager of the Shanghai Huashen Electric and Nuclear Power Company.
Yang absconded overseas in 1997 after his crime was brought to light. The judicial department began an official investigation in August 2000 and first put out a notice for his detention online that December. Yang went into hiding and lived incognito but sustained efforts by both Chinese and foreign police meant he would finally be brought back to stand trial and receive his punishment.
On April 16, the federal authorities of the United States handed over Yu Zhendong, 41, to the custody of their Chinese counterparts at Beijing International Airport. This former president of the Kaiping City branch of the Bank of China in Guangdong Province is accused of embezzling a huge sum of bank funds from 1993 to 2001. Yu's repatriation has established a successful precedent and is a good example of Sino-US criminal justice cooperation.
Others who were successfully repatriated in 2003 include Fu Puzhao. His corrupt reign as general manager of the Xi'an Puzhao Company in Shaanxi Province netted him huge amounts in depositor funds. And then there was Huang Qingzhou, former vice general manager of the Hong Kong branch of the Guangdong International Investment Company who embezzled 1.3 billion Hong Kong dollars of public funds.
Corrupt officials not welcome in the US
Last year the National People's Congress (NPC) ratified the United Nations Convention Against Transnational Organized Crime. This now includes over 140 countries. Also in 2003, along with 86 other countries, China signed the United Nations Convention Against Corruption. This laid a foundation for China to cooperate with other countries under the framework of international law, in pursuing corrupt officials on the run.
Corrupt officials fleeing the country tend to seek refuge in developed countries like Canada, Australia, and the United States that has proved particular popular. These fugitive criminals purchase expensive cars, houses and all kinds of luxuries. Once they think they are safe abroad they spend their embezzled money like water. Nonetheless, things changed after the September 11 attacks. With the US going all out in the fight against terrorism it has made it clear that illicit money brought in by corrupt foreign officials is of no benefit to the stability of the country's economy.
Furthermore, the US Department of Homeland Security, the Department of Justice and the State Department have jointly established the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). This has been authorized to confiscate the property of foreign officials suspected of corruption.
When the US repatriated Yu Zhendong, his ill-gotten gains, which had been confiscated by the US federal authorities, went back to China with him. His return sent a clear message that no longer could corrupt officials hope to find a safe haven in the US. Even if they get there safely they can expect to be brought back to face justice in the end.
Pursuing fugitives through sound judicial cooperation
Under the framework of international law, extradition has come to be regarded as the most effective way to crack down on fleeing economic crime suspects. Since 1994, China has signed bilateral extradition treaties with 19 countries. However none of these was a popular destination for corrupt officials seeking asylum. So in most cases, in the absence of bilateral extradition treaties, the fugitive corrupt officials have been repatriated through judicial consultation and police cooperation.
An international penal law expert points out that the international practice that death-row prisoners are excluded from extradition means that some of the worst offenders, if extradited, cannot be sentenced to death in China. Also if the criminal holds passports issued by more than one country, extradition will become particularly difficult since it has to involve these different countries.
However, good bilateral or multilateral judicial cooperation can make all these barriers pale into insignificance.
China's public security and judicial departments are strengthening cooperation with their foreign counterparts and working towards establishing regular meetings and suspect reporting systems.
This February, at the request of the Zhejiang Provincial People's Procuratorate, the International Criminal Police Organization (Interpol) issued a Red Notice for Yang Xiuzhu, former deputy head of the Construction Department of Zhejiang Province. Suspected of corruption and taking bribes, Yang, 57, fled the country last April accompanied by her daughter, son-in-law and grandson. They went first to Singapore and then on to the United States.
Any fugitive corrupt official would be sadly mistaken to think everything will go off without a hitch just by going to a country that has not signed a bilateral extradition treaty with China. This clear warning came from the Chinese Ministry of Public Security at a press conference.
Recovering stolen money
At first, China's law enforcement agencies sought to recover stolen money taken abroad by obtaining convictions followed up by legal actions seeking confiscation of the embezzled funds and compensation for losses incurred. But following several setbacks, legal experts have pointed out this method has not proved particularly effective.
It can be very expensive to pursue criminal cases overseas. Zhang Zhihui of the Supreme People's Procuratorate said, "To capture a corrupt official on the run we might have to spend millions of yuan. The procuratorial organs just do not have the resources for this."
Besides, there still exist many legal and political obstacles to police and judicial cooperation in criminal matters. As the negotiations drag on, the perpetrators win time to either squander or launder their stolen money.
It is the usual international practice to split the money recovered as the price of cooperation. However, the Chinese side has previously insisted that state-owned assets must be fully recovered. This often led to the breakdown of bilateral talks with not a single penny recovered.
Law experts have suggested a new approach that involves first pursuing a civil lawsuit to recover the embezzled money. A successful case would pave the way for subsequent criminal proceedings.
"This way the judicial proceedings are relatively simple and the cost is kept low. Meanwhile it facilitates getting assistance from international organizations and from the country the fugitive has chosen to go to," said Prof. Ren Jianming, vice director of the Anti-corruption and Governance Research Center at the School of Public Policy and Management, Tsinghua University.
"What's more, after a corrupt official has seen all the stolen money vanish in compensation payments, it will be almost impossible for him or her to continue living abroad," Ren said. "So returning home to accept legal punishment will become the only choice for the corrupt official."
In fact, many economic criminals have been brought to justice after they were reduced to penury abroad. In 2000, Canada, a country that has not yet signed an extradition treaty with China, offered to repatriate Fang Yong who, penniless and frustrated, was unable to hire a lawyer there. Fang, a former accountant of the Ningbo branch of the Bank of Communications, was accused of embezzling 1.6 million yuan (US$200,000) in public funds before he fled overseas.
Then there was the case of Li Huaxue, former vice president of the Beijing Urban & Rural Construction Group Co., Ltd (BURC). He fled to Australia after committing an economic crime. The Chinese side brought a civil case against him in an Australian law-court. The court decided in favor of the BURC and ordered the recovery of five villas in which Li had invested the money he fled with. Together the buildings located in Sydney are worth 8.87 million yuan (US$1.1 million). Then Interpol, at the request of the Chinese police, issued a Red Notice for Li and so he was finally brought to face justice.
(China.org.cn by Shao Da, June 15, 2004)
