China examines new legal tool to pursue graft suspects, assets abroad

[BEIJING] Top Chinese lawmakers this week began their first review of a draft cross-border anti-corruption law aimed at beefing up the country’s legal toolbox to pursue, repatriate and convict alleged corrupt officials currently abroad.

The ruling Communist Party had called for the law’s enactment at a key conclave in 2024 and it has been lauded by state media as an item of “strategic importance”.

The legislation would help “prevent and punish cross-border corruption and deepen international anti-corruption cooperation,” state-run Xinhua news agency said on Tuesday, citing an ongoing session of the National People’s Congress Standing Committee.

Draft laws typically undergo three separate readings by the top legislature, whose sessions are commonly held every two months, before being put to a vote. It would likely take at least several months before the bill becomes law.

Chinese President Xi Jinping has unleashed one ‌of ⁠the most sweeping corruption crackdowns in modern Chinese history since coming to power in 2012.

The campaign has ensnared senior party, government and military officials, and millions within China’s vast bureaucracy have been investigated to varying degrees.

Authorities have further said they are committed to tracking down and bringing back those who have left the country.

Over 3,000 former Communist Party and government officials have been repatriated to China over alleged graft from some 120 countries since Beijing launched the so-called “Operation Sky Net” in 2015, according to official tallies, which said around US$10 billion in illicit proceeds have been recovered in the process.

The national anti-graft watchdog also hosts on its website a “Red Notice” list of the 100 most wanted suspected fugitive bureaucrats and state employees implicated in major corruption cases — the majority of whom supposedly fled to the United States and Canada.

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Out of the 100, 62 have been brought back to China, authorities said last year.

Some foreign governments and human rights groups have, however, raised concerns that certain Chinese overseas fugitive recovery operations involved unauthorised surveillance, harassment and coercion while bypassing formal legal and extradition procedures. REUTERS