Chasing corrupt fugitives is not an easy task
- By Lin Liyao
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E-mail China.org.cn, October 24, 2014
On Oct. 10, China's Supreme People's Court, the Supreme People's Procuratorate, the Ministry of Public Security and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs jointly issued a statement urging fugitives facing corruption and fraud charges to surrender themselves to justice.
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The headquarters of the "Fox Hunt 2014" campaign is located in the Ministry of Public Security. |
According to the statement, suspects living abroad who opt to give themselves up before December 1 and offer true accounts of their crimes will be eligible for reduced punishments. Additional forbearance will be shown to those who actively redress their victims' losses, provide accurate information on the crimes of others, or assist authorities in their pursuit of other fugitives.
As of Oct. 10, Chinese police have taken 128 individuals suspected of economic crimes into custody in an international manhunt that began on July 22, when the "Fox Hunt 2014" campaign was launched to "block the last route of retreat" for corrupt officials.
Liu Dong, director of the international manhunt campaign and vice-director of the Economic Crime Investigation Department of the Ministry of Public Security (MPS), said to the media, "26 more suspects have given themselves up during the past 10 days, raising the number to 128. Last year, Chinese police seized a total of 151 economic crime suspects from abroad."
Liu said that the Ministry of Public Security has always paid a great deal of attention to chasing fugitives and their illegal assets. In order to deal with a wave of economic crimes, the MPS set up the Economic Crime Investigation Department in September 1998. Over the past six years, more than 860 economic crime suspects have been arrested and extradited from over 60 different countries and regions.
"In most of the previous campaigns, the MPS mainly focused on organization and communication," Liu said, "But this time, the ministry has directly taken part in the action, which has highly improved the efficiency of the entire task."
Since the campaign was launched in July, the MPS has sent over 30 operation groups to chase economic crime suspects and illegal assets overseas. The operation groups, usually consisting of four Chinese members, go abroad and cooperate with foreign police and law enforcement agencies.
According to Liu, the process of chasing corrupt officials and those suspected of economic crimes who have fled China involves six steps. First, local police stations in provinces and cities throughout the country report the registered economic crime cases to the MPS. The MPS will then deliberate, plan out capture strategies, and communicate with foreign police and immigration agencies before sending out action groups to arrest the suspects and extradite them to China.
Preparations for the overseas arrest actually take more time than the final act of capturing the fugitive. Liu said that sometimes it only takes three to four days for the police to travel halfway around the world to arrest the suspects, while the preparation work usually takes a few weeks or months.
In order to successfully arrest suspects within a very short time period of time, the MPS has to set up detailed and accurate strategies that vary on a case-by-case basis according to differing conditions and local regulations in the countries from which suspects will be extradited.
There are also differences in trans-national arrest cooperation. Liu said, "Different countries have different regulations and cooperation styles, and we have to respect their laws and follow their procedures."
According to Liu, there are also three different forms of extradition: formal extradition, repatriation, and persuading the suspects to go back to the country of their own free will. During the "Fox Hunt 2014" campaign, more than 40 percent of suspects chose to give themselves up in exchange for leniency.
Up to now, China has signed judicial assistance and extradition treaties with 63 countries, according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. However, language barriers and various unexpected obstructions continue to make chasing corrupt officials and economic crimes suspects overseas an altogether difficult task.
"One tough problem when chasing and extraditing those overseas suspects is the lack of law enforcement power," Liu said. "That is the greatest difficulty we have to deal with when working abroad."
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