Half of the corrupt officials who flee China to escape prosecution are heads of State Owned Enterprises (SOEs), according to a survey of 42 corrupt officials conducted by an anti-graft research group.

Hu Xingdou, professor of Beijing Institute of Technology, said the officials used overseas business connections to flee the country.

"As China's SOEs are usually leading players in their industries, most of them have overseas businesses and even overseas branches, so they can use these overseas contacts," he said.

The survey showed most corrupt officials went to the United States, Thailand, Australia, Canada and Russia to seek asylum.

A lack of supervision within the SOEs was also to blame for official corruption.

"Personnel in charge of discipline and supervision in the SOEs are usually lower than the SOEs' number one official in rank and are unable to monitor the head officials' power," Hu said.

Up until May 2006, there were 800 suspects wanted for economic crimes at large overseas. They are accused of embezzling nearly 70 billion yuan (875 million U.S. dollars), according to the Ministry of Public Security.

Source: Xinhua