The repatriation treaty between China and Spain in which China promised for the first time to exempt from the death penalty criminal suspects who had fled to Spain will not be standard in future treaties with other countries, said a Foreign Ministry official on Friday.

The treaty with Spain, signed in November last year, was ratified by the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress at the end of last month.

Legislators believed that the ratification is a significant step for China in fighting corrupt officials fleeing abroad.

Such officials usually take a huge amount of bribery money and flee to Western countries. The treaty with Spain is the first of its kind between China and a Western country.

"When we negotiate on repatriation treaties with other countries in the future, we will not copy the model of Spain," said Xu Hong, a councillor with the department of treaties and law under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

China will hold consultations with individual countries in accordance with their specific conditions and legal systems, said Xu.

"Under the precondition of respecting each other's legal system, China and other countries are able to reach agreement in conformity with each other's interests," he noted.

Since signing the repatriation treaty with Spain last November, China has stepped up talks with some Western countries on repatriation treaties, according to Xu. He declined to name these countries.

China's ratification of the repatriation treaty with Spain has caused controversy amid fears that it would encourage more corrupt officials to flee abroad to avoid the death penalty.

Besides Spain, China has so far signed similar treaties with 24 other countries, but none of them Western.

They include Russia, the Republic of Korea, South Africa and Brazil.

The implementation of the death penalty has prevented many Western countries from handing over suspects to China.

China has agreed before in individual cases not to execute returned criminals, said Xu, noting that the treaty with Spain is the first time such a promise has been formalized in a treaty.

Source: China Daily