|
 Liu Jianchao, in charge of repatriating Chinese corruption
suspects who flee abroad, said in an interview Beijing had deepened
cooperation with foreign governments and no longer sent officials
abroad without clearance from the host country to try to convince
the suspects to return home.
China has brought home more than 600 officials this year in a
campaign dubbed "Operation Fox Hunt", pursuing them abroad as part
of a wider crackdown on deep-rooted graft which Liu called "an
arduous task". Seventeen of the top 100 suspects on which China's
Interpol office issued a red notice in April have been repatriated,
he said.
"The Chinese authorities at different levels ... didn't really mean
to make any harm to the country that they were visiting, but then we
got these complaints, we realized there's room for improvement in
doing this job," Liu told Reuters on Monday on a visit to Britain to
seek better legal cooperation.
 "So now we are talking to the authorities of the relevant countries
to seek their assistance and their understanding and we tell them in
explicit terms that China will ... comply with the legal procedures,
with the rules of your country," he said, in an unusually frank
admission of the challenges Beijing has faced in trying to
repatriate economic fugitives.
"DAUNTING" TASK
Western diplomats in Beijing say their governments have been
infuriated by China sending agents to their countries to try to
convince suspects to return, and that if China wants their help it
must use above-board, legal methods and local courts.
The United States in particular has warned China about Chinese
agents it says were operating on U.S. soil to pressure fugitives to
return.
Western nations have balked at signing extradition deals with China,
partly out of concern about its judicial system. Rights groups say
Chinese authorities use torture and that the death penalty is common
in corruption cases.
President Xi Jinping has driven the corruption crackdown since
taking over the leadership of the Communist Party in late 2012.
Since then dozens of senior officials have been investigated or
jailed.
The Chinese government has given periodic updates of its progress in
bringing graft suspects back to China, in some cases announcing
batches of several dozen officials being returned.
However, the fight has been hampered by China's difficulty in
getting suspected corrupt officials and assets from overseas.
"The task remains daunting," said Liu, who is Vice Minister for the
National Bureau of Corruption Prevention. He also heads the
Department of International Cooperation within the party's Central
Commission for Discipline Inspection.
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Among those still overseas is Yang Xiuzhu, a former senior
construction official in eastern Zhejiang province charged with
corruption, who has been taken into custody by immigration
authorities in the United States but has applied for asylum.
Her brother, regional official Yang Jinjun, was repatriated to China
in September, the first time Beijing succeeded in bringing back a
suspect from the United States.
SMOOTH COOPERATION
Liu said he hoped London would sign an extradition treaty with
Beijing after a visit by Xi last month.
"It's really in the interests of both China and Britain to have more
smooth cooperation in the legal area."
He added that there were three people under Interpol's red notice -
the closest instrument to an international arrest warrant - in
Britain. One had been persuaded to return.
He did not say how many officials in total were being pursued abroad
or the value of assets that had been recovered.
Liu dismissed concerns of political motivation in tracking the
suspects, saying "any person who is corrupted is our enemy so we
have to bring each and every one of them to justice and we will put
them on trial for the crimes they've committed".
Xi has taken his anti-corruption battle into the personal lives of
government and party officials, banning everything from golf to
gluttony.
Liu said golf was an expensive game in China, sometimes costing more
than $150 to play 18 holes at private clubs, a steep bill compared
to the modest salaries most officials earn.
"It's not about a particular game. It's about the way government
officials behave," he said.
(Editing by Jason Subler and Mark Bendeich)
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