Corrupt Shanghai officials caught by 'Skynet'

Shanghai's anti-graft watchdog said on Thursday that eight corrupt officials who had fled abroad have been brought back to face trial since the launch of operation "Skynet" in March last year.

Skynet is the name of a campaign launched by the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, the nation's top anti-graft body, to seek the return of corrupt officials hiding abroad and confiscate their ill-gotten assets.

Ding Guping, director of the anti-corruption bureau at the Shanghai People's Procuratorate, told a media briefing on Thursday that information-based detection had played a key role in bringing the fugitives to justice.

"We used big data collected from different channels to learn as much as possible about the latest movements of the suspects. We then cooperated with the police department and State security bureau to get important information, including their chat and transaction records from WeChat and Alipay," he said.

Ding said anti-graft officers formulated a specific work plan for each case after an integrated information analysis has been completed.