Flies and Tigers | 抓蝇打虎
China gives names of fugitives to US
中国向美国提交出逃海外的贪腐官员
Print Edition
CHINA has provided the United States with a list of alleged fugitives amid a campaign to track down corrupt officials and others who have fled abroad, the US State Department’s representative to recent law enforcement talks said yesterday.
William Brownfield, the assistant secretary for international narcotics and law enforcement affairs, said the two sides identified a “finite number of individuals” and agreed to “develop a strategy” for each of them.
From there, the sides will “see if we could build from that to a larger solution to the problem,” Brownfield said.
China and the US do not have an extradition agreement, although the law offers alternatives. Wanted persons can be dealt with through prosecution in the country to which they fled or be expelled for immigration violations.
Their assets can also be seized if determined to have been illegally acquired, leaving them little option but to return home.
An American official speaking on condition of anonymity said China provided more than 100 names, but offered little information about their identities, alleged offenses or possible whereabouts in the US.
The move appears to be part of China’s drive to extend an ongoing crackdown on corruption to those officials who have fled abroad with their ill-gotten gains.
China has estimated that since the mid-1990s, 16,000 to 18,000 corrupt officials and employees of state-owned enterprises have fled China or gone into hiding with pilfered assets totaling more than 800 billion yuan (US$130 billion).
While China has expressed interest in negotiating an extradition treaty, its failure to provide reciprocity by agreeing to extradite Chinese citizens accused of crimes in the US was preventing that from happening, the official said.
The person said also it is unlikely that the Senate will provide the necessary approval to ratify an extradition treaty.
Even if a treaty was ratified, an American judge would still have to rule that the offense for which the person is wanted is also a criminal offense in the US.
“So, at least at this moment, an extradition treaty doesn’t seem to be on the cards, but there are other ways to accomplish the objective of denying safe haven to criminals,” the official said.
The US currently has no pending requests for China to send wanted persons to the US, although it tried and failed to have former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden handed over while he was hiding last year in Hong Kong.
Rather than the return of fugitives, America’s chief concern is getting China to take back about 39,000 of its citizens who are at some point in the process of being deported, Brownfield said.
The semi-annual US-China Joint Liason Group on Law Enforcement also dealt with cybercrime, intellectual property rights, corruption and other issues. The talks involved more than 100 officials from both sides.
Despite China’s suspension of a dialogue with the US on hacking and cyber spying, Beijing responded by making arrests after the US tracked a computer crime gang to China, the official said.
The US understands that prosecutions are likely to follow, the person said, but declined to elaborate as the case has not yet been made public.
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