China demands that US repatriate economic fugitives

Beijing on Wednesday reiterated demands that the United States repatriate what it calls economic fugitives back to China.

The call is part of President Xi Jinping’s ongoing campaign to root out corruption — a bid that has unseated all level of the ruling elite since he came to office in November 2012.

“The Chinese government pays great attention to anti-corruption. We are now reinforcing domestic efforts to crack down on corruption, and at the same time cooperating with relevant countries to go after overseas corrupt officials, retrieve their illicit gains, punish the corrupt and leave them no place to hide,” the spokesman for the Chinese Embassy in Washington, Zhu Haiquan, told The Independent.

The comment came after an unnamed Chinese anti-corruption official told semi-official newspaper China Daily on Wednesday that they were in negotiations to repatriate “five major corrupt fugitives, including Yang Xiuzhu, who is suspected of illegal immigration and is in custody awaiting deportation proceedings.”

The Independent could not immediately confirm the identities of the remaining four suspects.

Many in China’s ruling class are believed to have escaped or stashed assets abroad in countries like the US amid President Xi’s anti-graft push. It remains unclear how many of China's suspected fugitives from justice are in the United States. The two countries share no extradition treaty, but Beijing has in recent months launched various bids to work together with US authorities to bring the suspects back to the People’s Republic.

“Over the years, judicial and law enforcement departments of China and the US have taken positive steps to implement the political consensus reached by both governments, and work in unison to fight against transnational corruption crimes,” Mr Zhu said. “This fully shows that there is no safe haven for the corrupt, and those who have run away will eventually be brought to justice.”

The US Justice Department did not respond to a request for comment at time of publication.

The latest sign of cooperation between Chinese and US authorities in law enforcement came in September, when Washington returned what state media called “China’s most wanted economic fugitive,” Yang Jinjun, to his home country to stand trial for corruption and bribery, Al Jazeera America reported.