China to join int'l network to catch corrupt officials

China's National People's Congress is expected to pass the "United Nations Convention against Corruption'' resolution in the near future in order to build a cooperative network for international anti-corruption in China, said Chu Huaizhi, Chinese president on the topic of "International Cooperation Against Corruption'' at the 22nd Congress on the Law of the World and law professor with Peking University Law School on Sunday. Chu Huaizhi said there appears a tendency for organized and transnational corruption. It is vital to improve anti-corruption effectiveness and actively develop international cooperation. At the beginning of this year, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China clearly pointed out in its outline a need for the establishment of an anti-corruption working mechanism that serves to educate and supervise party members, punish those who turn corrupt and prevent corruption. It will construct "an international cooperative mechanism for anti-corruption in areas of law-enforcement cooperation, judicial assistance, personnel repatriation and foreign funds reimbursement.

It has been introduced that owing to the different cultural backgrounds and judicial systems between China and the Western countries, China has signed extradition treaties and judicial assistance treaties only with some countries, mainly neighboring nations. However, China has not signed such treaties with countries where corrupt officials often go, such as the developed countries including the United States and European nations, which requires Chinese judicial organs to work through international judicial assistance.

Chu Huaizhi said that on October 31, 2003, the 58th United Nations General Assembly passed the "UN Convention Against Corruption'' and more than 100 countries have rectified the convention. While insisting on the basic lawful principle on extradition and judicial practices, the convention has made some improvement and enhancement in the fields of suitable extradition and cooperation against the features and prevention of corruptive criminals so as to greatly raise the efficiency of combating transnational and/or cross border crime. The Chinese government signed the treaty on December 10th last year; however, it has not won approval from the standing committee of the National People's Congress.

According to the data released by the Ministry of Public Security, by the end of last year, more than 5,000 economic criminal suspects (most of them were corrupt officials) fled overseas with approximately 70 billion yuan of illicit money. The NPC standing committee will pass the convention in the near future. Once passed, it will play a great role in bringing back fugitive corrupt officials and drawing back illicit money that they have taken overseas through international judicial assistance. It is also learned that China will also sign the international criminal legal assistance agreement to form the practical development of a bilateral and multilateral international cooperative mechanism against corruption.

By People's Daily Online