China woos foreign diplomats in hunt for overseas graft suspects
BEIJING: China urged foreign diplomats to help “weave a cooperative network against corruption,” state media said yesterday, as it scrambles to build international support for President Xi Jinping’s four-year war on graft.
Xi has vowed to fight deep-rooted graft at all levels of the ruling Communist Party until officials ‘dare not, cannot and don’t want to’ be corrupt, and has warned that failure to stamp out the rot could threaten the party’s future.
China has taken the battle global, publishing a list of the 100 most-wanted corruption suspects who have fled overseas to countries such as US, Canada and Australia, often taking their wealth with them.
Authorities have said they clawed back 2.3 billion yuan (US$ 334 million) in graft proceeds from more than 70 countries and regions in the first 11 months of 2016.
But China has struggled to win full cooperation in tracking and repatriating such fugitives, with foreign countries blaming an under- developed legal system for their reluctance to sign extradition treaties.
In an unusual step, Wu Yuliang, deputy head of the top graft watchdog, the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI), briefed representatives of 113 diplomatic missions and 13 international bodies on Thursday about China’s efforts to fight graft, the official Xinhua News Agency said.
It did not list the countries, but said the Greek ambassador to China, Leonidas Rokanas, was among those who attended.
Efforts to strengthen supervision constitute a “major political reform”, Wu said, giving examples such as tougher laws against corruption and the establishment of a national supervisory body.
The campaign to return corrupt officials and other overseas fugitives adhered to the law, not only that of China, but also other countries, Wu added.
Looking to allay doubts about China’s legal processes, Liu Jianchao, who leads the efforts to bring home corruption suspects, said details of 105 repatriation cases had been released, according to a transcript on the watchdog’s website.
He also offered to arrange for diplomats to visit corruption suspects in detention or under trial, saying he hoped to dispel concerns and spur more countries to sign extradition pacts. — Reuters