China will be able to resort to the United Nations (UN) Convention Against Transnational Organized Crime in launching fiercer crackdowns upon absconded corrupt officials, money laundering and other cross-border crimes, according to sources from China's top legislature Wednesday.

The Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPC) formally ratified the convention at its fourth meeting Wednesday, signifying an important move by China to promote global cooperation in combating transnational organized crime.

Passed at the 55th United Nations General Assembly on Nov. 15, 2000, the convention is due to take effect Sept. 29 this year. The Chinese government signed the convention Dec. 12, 2000.

The convention makes specific stipulations about four types of crimes, namely participating in organized criminal groups, money laundering, corruption and obstructing justice.

However, jurists note that the prescriptions about corruption and money laundering in the convention cover wider scopes and use stricter criteria than those in China's related laws currently in force.

The convention also proposes that signatory countries punish foreign government officials and international civil servants who have committed bribery.

In the Chinese criminal law, crimes connected with money laundering only include four types, namely, drug trafficking, Mafia-like crimes, terrorism and smuggling.

But the convention specifies a wider range of crimes, with illicit gains likely to be involved in money laundering, said Shen Chunyao, a member of the NPC Standing Committee.

Jurists believe that the signing of the convention will provide solid legal ground for the Chinese police to further pursue absconded criminals, as China has seen an increasing number of corrupt official flee abroad with huge sums of illegal money in recent years.

At the same meeting, the legislature body passed a law on administrative licenses, which embodies the principle of rigorously restricting the power of government bodies and will facilitate the country's uphill battle against corruption. The law will take effect July 1, 2004.

(Xinhua News Agency August 28, 2003)