The National People's Congress (NPC) is mulling amending the
Criminal Procedure Law later this year to take the country's legal
system closer to international practice.
The amendment, aimed at adapting to the UN Convention against
Corruption, is part of China's efforts to bring to justice a large
number of corrupt officials who have fled overseas.
Wang Zhenchuan, deputy procurator general of the Supreme
People's Procuratorate, said the Standing Committee of the NPC, the
country's top legislature, is scheduled to take up the amendment in
October.
The amendment may include the burden of providing evidence,
system of criminal trials by default, as well as cooperation
between Chinese and foreign judicial organs.
With the amendment, procuratorate departments can prosecute an
official for possessing property disproportionate to his income
without giving evidence but by reasoning from existing proof.
Now Chinese courts cannot raise a criminal or civil action in
the absence of a suspect. So they cannot do anything to punish
those who have fled abroad except negotiate with those nations for
their extradition.
"Despite some differences, the formulation or revision of
Chinese domestic laws will follow the UN convention because China
is a signatory country," Wang said.
He conceded the differences between Chinese laws and the UN
convention have made it difficult for China to seek international
cooperation to extradite corrupt officials.
Chinese laws, for example, say bribery crimes must include
material enrichment, while the convention stipulates "all unlawful
profits, not necessarily material properties, and even not
necessarily acquirements in real sense but maybe merely promises,
all should be considered as briberies".
In terms of penalty, the Chinese laws stipulate heavier
punishments than the overseas ones. A person found guilty of taking
a bribe of 100,000 yuan ($13,233) can be jailed for 10 years or
more in China, compared to a maximum of seven to eight years in
other countries.
Some countries, especially in the West, have reportedly rejected
China's demand to extradite corrupt officials because Beijing can
hand down the capital punishment for economic crimes.
About 800 suspects wanted for embezzling a cumulative 70 billion
yuan (US$9.2 billion) are living abroad. Few of them have been
extradited.
China signed the UN document in December 2003, and the NPC
ratified it unanimously in October 2005.
(China Daily July 26, 2007)