The Chinese government on Saturday tabled the international
document with its legislature, the National People's Congress (NPC)
Standing Committee, for ratification in less than two years after
subscripting to the United Nations Convention against
Corruption.
The convention "is conducive to the repatriation of corrupt
criminals fled abroad and the recovery of Chinese assets illegally
transferred to foreign lands," Premier Wen
Jiabao said in a bill submitted to the legislature.
China has been increasingly plagued by government officials and
executives of state-owned companies who abscond with a large sum of
public money and flee overseas to escape from prosecution and
punishment.
Chinese police authorities said that by the end of last year,
more than 500 Chinese suspects had committed economic crimes, most
of whom were corrupt officials, were at large in foreign countries,
who carried with them a total of 70 billion yuan (US$8.4 billion)
of illegal funds. Only a fraction of them have been extradited back
to China.
The UN anti-corruption convention, adopted by the UN General
Assembly in October 31, 2003, has made stipulations on the
prevention, criminalization, international cooperation, assets
recovery and implementation mechanism in the fight against
transnational crimes of corruption.
The convention is consistent with China's anti-corruption
strategy of putting equal emphasis on punishment and prevention of
such a crime and has no contradictions with Chinese domestic laws
in this regard, said Wu Dawei, vice-minister of foreign affairs, at
Saturday's legislative hearing.
"Most importantly, it will provides a strong international legal
basis for China to solve the current difficulties in investigating,
extraditing criminal suspects of corruption and recovering Chinese
assets in foreign countries," Wu told legislators.
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The vice-minister also said China has played a "constructive
role" in the formulation of this legal document to make it reflect
Chinese stance "to the maximum extent."
China has attached great importance to international cooperation
in the fight against corruption. Chinese prosecutors have captured
a total of about 70 criminal suspects of corruption from abroad
through legal assistance channels with foreign countries since
1998.
The successful extradition from the United States of a local
branch head of the Bank of China in Guangdong
Province in 2004 was lauded as the most powerful deterrence for
Chinese corrupt officials, since the country used to be taken as
the safest destination to escape from prosecution. Yu Zhendong, the
banker, misappropriated US$483 million before fleeing to the United
States.
Chinese police has also seized more than 230 Chinese criminal
suspects from more than 30 countries and regions during the period
of 1993 to January this year with the help of Interpol, the
international police body.
Wu Dawei, vice-minister of foreign affairs, said that China is
busy formulating the law on the prevention and punishment of money
laundry and revising its criminal law, in an effort to better adapt
Chinese legal system to the UN anti-corruption convention upon its
ratification.
China signed the document in December in 2003. By September 15,
30 countries have ratified the convention, which will goes into
effect on December 14 this year.
The convention has been one of the most noticeable efforts of
the United Nations in tackling a growing trend of
internationalization of corruption.
Kofi Annan, United Nations Secretary-General, said upon the
adoption of the convention that "Corruption hurts the poor
disproportionately by diverting funds intended for development,
undermining a government's ability to provide basic services,
feeding inequality and injustice, and discouraging foreign
investment and aid."
(Xinhua News Agency October 23, 2005)