No slacking in hunt for fugitives: China Daily editorial

That 1,841 fugitives suspected of economic crimes — including 35 on Interpol's Red Notice for economic crimes — were extradited or brought back for trial in one way or another from January to November last year points to the fact that the efforts to bring them to justice are paying off.

And that 816 of those who sought safe havens in foreign lands with the money they had stolen used to be government employees and members of the Communist Party of China sends a clear message that the CPC Central Committee and the central government will spare no efforts in their hunt for corrupt elements and will do their utmost to recover stolen assets. The illegal money recovered in the 11 months totaled 4.09 billion yuan ($587.84 million).

A campaign was launched in 2015 to track down those corrupt elements seeking shelter abroad. In 2019, the National Supervision Commission coordinated all resources from supervision commissions of all levels to do the job, while People's Bank of China and the public security departments intensified their efforts to crack down on money laundering and the transfer of illegal funds abroad from offshore companies or underground banks.

Cooperation has been intensified with foreign counterparts in accordance with relevant international conventions or bilateral treaties or anti-corruption memorandums of understanding for cooperation and law enforcement to make it possible for cross-border action to identify and locate fugitives, and their ill-gotten gains.

That quite a number of such fugitives gave themselves up indicates that China's efforts in this regard have made it increasingly hard for such elements to seek shelter overseas any more.

The crackdown on the transfer of dirty money abroad through illegal channels has narrowed the leeway for corrupt elements or suspects linked to financial crimes to maneuver when fleeing abroad.

Fence-mending measures such as tightened supervision to spot signs of possible fleeing by some officials will help the authorities to stop suspects from leaving the country. Such supervision in Central China's Hunan province, for instance, found that 24 government officials had more than one passport.

Some local disciplinary inspection departments have adopted measures in advance to monitor suspects as soon as they are investigated so they can prevent them fleeing overseas. In Beijing alone, four such suspects were nabbed before they fled. As a result, Beijing realized a zero increase in the number of corrupt elements that fled abroad in 2019.

Hunting down fugitives suspected of economic crimes is a hard nut to crack. But the increasing number of such fugitives brought back in different ways shows such efforts should never slacken. Rather, endeavors to deter and prevent corrupt elements from making such an attempt must be intensified based on accumulated achievements and experience until the possibility is reduced to as slim as possible.