Justice across the border

By Li Hong (chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2008-09-04 09:38

It's great news that a federal jury in Las Vegas has ruled two Chinese fugitives, Xu Chaofan and Xu Guojun, guilty for channeling US$485 million of the Bank of China assets secretly abroad in late 1990s, the biggest theft since the age of Mao Zedong. The US justice will issue a sentence to the two former BOC managers in late November.

The revelation, on the heels of a joyful summer Olympic Games, has cheered the Chinese public up. Netizens and bloggers have greeted the conviction with enthusiastic appreciation, hailing it as another win against corruption, growing cooperation between the two juggernaut nations, with many pinning hopes on the United States authorities to repatriate the two money-embezzlers back to China eventually.

The overseas press, especially American mainstream media, used to "decorate" in their writing about the state of China with phrases like "deteriorating environment" and "rampant corruption". In fact, ordinary Chinese people loath corruption to a high degree as they aspire for equal opportunity and social justice. The Central Government in Beijing has listed corruption as a cancerous cell in the body of the nation, which if not curbed and busted, will not only jeopardize China's modernization bid, but also endanger the country's very existence.

Efficient and clean governance is the basic building block a government can deliver to its people. China is no exception. Although the war against corruption is far from accomplished - it may never be accomplished -- China's government, under the guidance of President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao, has fought steadfastly against high-level corruption by senior officials, or kleptocracy, since they came into power in late 2002. Since then a slew of top-ranking corrupted bureaucrats have been put behind the bars.

However, the fight against corruption is facing increasing difficulty now, because many embezzlers have fled and found safe haven abroad, some living an exorbitantly extravagant life with money looted from China. The two Xus were said, according to some Chinese media reports, to have purchased extensive assets in North America, and their daily lives prior to being captured featured winning and gambling in Las Vegas casinos.

The rising mobility of large numbers of people between continents makes it hard to find fugitives of justice. As a matter of fact, some corrupt executives and officials prepare for their escapes at the time when they commit economic crimes, like acquiring visas from more than one foreign country, for example. Then they would head for the border the moment they sniff something ominous in the air.

The Ministry of Public Security figures show more than 800 people suspected of embezzling 70 billion yuan worth of property and funds, have fled China, and apart from about 360 who have been repatriated, about 500 remain at large abroad. Among them, Lai Changxing, the most-wanted fugitive, who is the kingpin of the country's most notorious smuggling case, fled to Canada in 1999.

Only when the loophole in which the corrupted escape to other countries with stolen money, is plugged, the problem will not cease. The Central Government in Beijing needs to conduct more judicial talks with other governments, and ink more mutual repatriation pacts. The Chinese people want to see those fugitives with looted Chinese assets be brought back home and face justice. Some governments in the world have abolished death penalty, and some seriously believe that capital punishment only applies to murderers.

China's law is harsh on those who commit outrageous economic crimes in order to deter future crimes of this nature, I believe. Whether the law will be rewritten, say, giving an economic felon the maximum penalty of life imprisonment instead of death, is the job of the National People's Congress. But the public should debate it. Only when the escape route for the corrupted to flee abroad is made two-way, with Beijing and other governments working together, the fight against corruption, by any governments, could hardly be won.

The conviction of the two Xus by American justice sets a precedent that serves as a warning shot to potentially corrupt officials in China. It's the trend for getting things done, and getting China on a cleaner path.