At a national meeting Saturday in Guangzhou, capital of south China's Guangdong Province, prosecutors are discussing tougher measures to hunt corrupt officials who have fled overseas.  

Procuratorates across the country should work harder to retrieve corrupt officials who have fled China, said Wang Zhenchuan, vice procurator-general of the Supreme People's Procuratorate (SPP).

Chinese prosecutors need to strengthen cooperation with other judicial departments and establish departments that are skilled in both foreign languages and their knowledge of law.

China has brought back 71 fugitive corrupt officials from overseas since 1998, said Wang. But the work is not meeting the current demand as the number of fugitive corrupt officials overseas has increased since 2000, according to a state-backed anti-corruption research program. The exact number has not been disclosed.

China has only signed extradition treaties with 19 countries so far. Most are developing countries, which are not often the destinations for corrupt officials.

At the end of 2003, China signed the United Nations Convention Against Corruption. The pact requires governments to enact minimum legal standards against corruption, protect whistle-blowers and assist other countries in detecting the flow of illicit funds.

(Xinhua News Agency September 12, 2004)