US deports Chinese corruption suspect

BEIJING: The United States deported a Chinese corruption suspect who was on the run for 14 years, Beijing’s main anti-corruption agency said on Thursday.

Kuang Wanfang was forcibly repatriated by US authorities as part of an ongoing operation by Beijing to capture wanted officials who had fled abroad.

Born in 1967 from Kaiping city in the southern province of Guangdong, Kuang is suspected of corruption and bribery, according to China’s Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI). Kuang was involved in the misappropriation of public funds worth $500 million, the CCDI said in an online statement on Thursday.

She was sent back to Guangdong after “close cooperation” between the judicial, law enforcement and foreign affairs authorities of China and the US, CCDI said.

Kuang is the wife of the former president of Kaiping branch of the Bank of China, Xu Chaofan, who was earlier found guilty by a US court of internationally transporting and trying to launder at least $485 million stolen from the bank.

The repatriation was part of Operation Fox Hunt, China’s targeting of thousands of officials who have fled overseas during the past two decades.

Yang Yinjun, suspected of embezzlement and bribery, was the first person forcibly repatriated by US authorities, the CCDI said on September 18. — dpa