Nation plans more international cooperation to chase fugitives

More than 900 fugitives are still on the run overseas, and China will strengthen judicial cooperation with relevant countries to repatriate them to face trial, according to the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection.

According to the CCDI, China will enhance intelligence sharing and cooperation in joint investigations with foreign counterparts, especially in the West, and Chinese authorities will conduct more case-by-case negotiations with them on important cases.

Moreover, officials will work on collecting information to provide foreign counterparts with a complete chain of evidence, including suspects' locations and details of how their assets were transferred, then request that they detain the fugitives and confiscate their ill-gotten gains.

Chinese law enforcement offices have ascertained the whereabouts of 365 of the fugitives, mostly corrupt officials.

"They fled overseas to avoid arrest and sent millions of yuan in illicit assets to foreign bank accounts, which has seriously harmed people's interests and undermined our credibility and social justice," said a senior CCDI official who declined to be named.

The commission has urged members of the public to report valuable clues about fugitives and corrupt officials who they think may intend to flee.

In addition, it has called for countries harboring fugitives to abide by international conventions on combating transnational corruption and actively cooperate with Chinese judicial authorities.

"We urge some individual countries-which have issued fugitives with visas under investment immigration policies in return for economic benefits-to tighten visa management and revoke those already issued," the official said.

Western countries are popular destinations for economic fugitives from China as a result of legal obstacles and a lack of bilateral extradition treaties.

Since 2014, when China launched operations Fox Hunt and Skynet, more than 4,000 economic fugitives have returned from more than 90 countries and regions, according to the CCDI.