Fugitive ran out of money and friends
Print Edition
WITH no money coming in and no friends or relatives to rely on, China’s most-wanted fugitive decided it was time to give herself up, the country’s corruption watchdog said yesterday.
Family members lobbied by senior members of the Chinese community in the United States had cut off funds to 70-year-old Yang Xiuzhu in a bid to force her to return home, it said.
Yang, a former deputy director of the construction department in east China’s Zhejiang Province, surrendered to Chinese authorities after 13 years in hiding overseas, flying back to China on Wednesday.
Giving details of how she was persuaded to surrender, the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection said all of her relatives at home and abroad had advised her to come back.
They “even took the initiative to cut off lawyer fees and living expenses, assisting us in the job of persuading her to come back,” it said in a statement on its website.
The heads of the Wenzhou, where Yang had been a deputy mayor, and Zhejiang clan associations in New York and other “patriotic overseas Chinese leaders” fully supported and cooperated in the mission to get Yang back, the commission said.
‘No way to escape’
“They advised and guided Yang Xiuzhu and her relatives and urged the US side to repatriate her as soon as possible.”
The aim was to make sure Yang had “no money to spend, nobody to rely on and no way to escape,” it added.
With Chinese and US officials hard at her heels and in the face of being abandoned by all her relatives, Yang’s resistance had crumbled and she decided to return, the commission said.
Yang, who is accused of embezzling more than US$40 million, fled China in April 2003, seeking asylum in France, the Netherlands and then the United States.
In April last year, China published a list of 100 of its most wanted corruption suspects, many living in the US, Canada and Australia.
Yang’s name was placed top of that list.
China’s pursuit of corrupt officials and business executives who fled abroad with their assets is part of the nation’s widespread war on deep-seated corruption.
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 沪ICP证：沪ICP备05050403号-1
- |
- 互联网新闻信息服务许可证：31120180004
- |
- 网络视听许可证：0909346
- |
- 广播电视节目制作许可证：沪字第354号
- |
- 增值电信业务经营许可证：沪B2-20120012
Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
