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Sunday, 17 January 2010
China to stem exodus of corrupt officials
Beijing is tightening the screws on a growing exodus of corrupt officials making away with stolen funds, its latest move in a renewed clampdown on rampant corruption.
Task force set up to nab bad hats before they escape overseas
By Sim Chi Yin, China Correspondent 12 January 2010
BEIJING: Beijing is tightening the screws on a growing exodus of corrupt officials making away with stolen funds, its latest move in a renewed clampdown on rampant corruption.
A new joint task force linking 17 government agencies will try to stem this tide of graft by catching the bad hats before they escape abroad, the ruling Communist Party’s top anti-graft body said.
Coordination among the public security, finance, judiciary and diplomatic agencies should help choke off such attempts, said the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection in a report carried by China News Service last Saturday.
As many as 4,000 officials have fled the country with about US$50 billion (S$70 billion) in public funds over the past 30 years of China’s phenomenal economic boom, the country’s top prosecutorial office said in its newspaper Procuratorial Daily yesterday.
Hooking up with triads and criminal gangs in other countries, the former officials are often able to launder their ill-gotten gains, get fake identification papers and buy property, said the article, which was posted on the website of the Supreme People’s Procuratorate.
Those figures have been cited - unrevised - by officials and state media since 2001, suggesting that no corrupt official has fled in the past 10 years.
Noting that the authorities may downplay the statistics to avoid stoking public anger, anti-corruption experts have estimated that at least 10,000 officials have fled China, taking at least US$100 billion in public funds.
Corruption and abuse of power are hot-button issues for ordinary Chinese, with public revelations of official graft often triggering street protests.
President Hu Jintao has termed rot within the ranks of the Chinese Communist Party a matter of life and death for the party, and has made a sweeping anti-graft campaign a top priority in recent years.
But experts say the decay appears to be deepening and China has not yet turned the corner in its anti-graft fight. Scores of government officials and top managers of state-owned enterprises have fled to developed countries, including the United States and Canada, to escape arrest.
‘Some developed countries have become a ‘paradise for those in hiding’,’ the Procuratorial Daily article said, calling for foreign countries to cooperate with China.
Less high-powered officials usually choose to disappear into Africa, Latin America, eastern Europe or China’s neighbours before moving on to developed countries, reported the Yancheng Evening News yesterday.
China has extradition treaties with 31 countries, including Australia, France, Thailand and Russia, making it difficult for Beijing to press for the return of officials who take refuge in other places.
In a report on Sunday, the Southern Metropolis Daily listed the seven steps a fleeing corrupt official usually takes: move his financial assets abroad; move his family members overseas; prepare a passport; pocket as much money as he can; quit his post or just disappear; hide for a while; and get residency overseas.
The newspaper also painted the typical getaway scenarios. Such officials usually disappear while on overseas assignments or on group tours. Or they would use fake identification documents to get a passport, or link up with triads and underground groups who provide ‘one-stop service’ in countries like the US and Australia.
Last year, the authorities investigated 103 cases involving the overseas travel of more than 300 officials, the Global Times said, citing a party official tasked with disciplinary issues.
Overseas trips have been put under greater scrutiny since Mr. Yang Xianghong, a district party boss in the eastern boomtown of Wenzhou, went on a government junket to France in 2008 and refused to return home, citing a debilitating back pain that prevented him from taking the long flight.
His wife was later arrested in China on suspicion of trying to launder about 20 million yuan (S$4 million), Xinhua state news agency reported last year.
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China to stem exodus of corrupt officials
Task force set up to nab bad hats before they escape overseas
By Sim Chi Yin, China Correspondent
12 January 2010
BEIJING: Beijing is tightening the screws on a growing exodus of corrupt officials making away with stolen funds, its latest move in a renewed clampdown on rampant corruption.
A new joint task force linking 17 government agencies will try to stem this tide of graft by catching the bad hats before they escape abroad, the ruling Communist Party’s top anti-graft body said.
Coordination among the public security, finance, judiciary and diplomatic agencies should help choke off such attempts, said the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection in a report carried by China News Service last Saturday.
As many as 4,000 officials have fled the country with about US$50 billion (S$70 billion) in public funds over the past 30 years of China’s phenomenal economic boom, the country’s top prosecutorial office said in its newspaper Procuratorial Daily yesterday.
Hooking up with triads and criminal gangs in other countries, the former officials are often able to launder their ill-gotten gains, get fake identification papers and buy property, said the article, which was posted on the website of the Supreme People’s Procuratorate.
Those figures have been cited - unrevised - by officials and state media since 2001, suggesting that no corrupt official has fled in the past 10 years.
Noting that the authorities may downplay the statistics to avoid stoking public anger, anti-corruption experts have estimated that at least 10,000 officials have fled China, taking at least US$100 billion in public funds.
Corruption and abuse of power are hot-button issues for ordinary Chinese, with public revelations of official graft often triggering street protests.
President Hu Jintao has termed rot within the ranks of the Chinese Communist Party a matter of life and death for the party, and has made a sweeping anti-graft campaign a top priority in recent years.
But experts say the decay appears to be deepening and China has not yet turned the corner in its anti-graft fight. Scores of government officials and top managers of state-owned enterprises have fled to developed countries, including the United States and Canada, to escape arrest.
‘Some developed countries have become a ‘paradise for those in hiding’,’ the Procuratorial Daily article said, calling for foreign countries to cooperate with China.
Less high-powered officials usually choose to disappear into Africa, Latin America, eastern Europe or China’s neighbours before moving on to developed countries, reported the Yancheng Evening News yesterday.
China has extradition treaties with 31 countries, including Australia, France, Thailand and Russia, making it difficult for Beijing to press for the return of officials who take refuge in other places.
In a report on Sunday, the Southern Metropolis Daily listed the seven steps a fleeing corrupt official usually takes: move his financial assets abroad; move his family members overseas; prepare a passport; pocket as much money as he can; quit his post or just disappear; hide for a while; and get residency overseas.
The newspaper also painted the typical getaway scenarios. Such officials usually disappear while on overseas assignments or on group tours. Or they would use fake identification documents to get a passport, or link up with triads and underground groups who provide ‘one-stop service’ in countries like the US and Australia.
Last year, the authorities investigated 103 cases involving the overseas travel of more than 300 officials, the Global Times said, citing a party official tasked with disciplinary issues.
Overseas trips have been put under greater scrutiny since Mr. Yang Xianghong, a district party boss in the eastern boomtown of Wenzhou, went on a government junket to France in 2008 and refused to return home, citing a debilitating back pain that prevented him from taking the long flight.
His wife was later arrested in China on suspicion of trying to launder about 20 million yuan (S$4 million), Xinhua state news agency reported last year.
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