Fugitive Hunting Continues into 2022

China has launched the 2022 manhunt operation to capture corrupt officials who fled overseas and to recover their illicit assets.

The campaign, codenamed “Sky Net 2022,” is led by the office in charge of fugitive repatriation and asset recovery under the central anti-corruption coordination group, and carried out under coordinated efforts by several authorities: The National Supervisory Commission is in charge of duty-related crimes; the Ministry of Public Security will initiate targeted operations for hunting fugitive officials that fled overseas; the People’s Bank of China and the Ministry of Public Security will work together to prevent and crack down on illicit money transfers through off-shore entities and underground banks; and the Supreme People’s Court and the Supreme People’s Procuratorate will jointly launch campaigns for recovering ill-gotten wealth involving cases where the criminal suspect or defendant escapes or is dead.

In 2021, a total of 1,273 fugitives were brought back to China and over RMB 16.74 billion of illicit funds were recovered.