China will launch an operation code named "Sky Net" in late March, pooling the resources from several government and Party departments to hunt corrupt officials who have fled abroad.
It will be another major campaign to nab fugitive suspects of economic offenses following the "Fox Hunt" campaign last year.
From April on, involved departments will make joint efforts to capture a group of corrupt officials, clean up illegal certificates, bust underground banks, recover assets involved in criminal cases and persuade fugitive suspects to return home, according to a meeting of the central authority's anti-graft coordination group.
The country's swift action and firm resolve to fight corruption have been lauded by scholars and officials at home and abroad, who expressed belief that its global anti-graft network will be improving continuously despite existing barriers to international judicial cooperation.
CHINA'S RESOLVE
China, in recent years, has chalked up great achievements in its hunt for corrupt officials hidden abroad.
In a report delivered by Procurator-General Cao Jianming on the work of the Supreme People's Procuratorate (SPP) in 2014, Cao said Chinese prosecutors seized 749 fleeing corrupt suspects from both home and abroad last year.
Among all, 49 suspects were repatriated or were persuaded to turn themselves in from 17 countries including the United States and Canada, Cao said.
"We will actively advance efforts to have fugitive suspects repatriated and recover their illegal proceeds of corruption," the top prosecutor said when outlining the SPP's work priorities in 2015. "The corrupt shall never be allowed to get away with the law."
Chief Justice Zhou Qiang also said the Supreme People's Court (SPC) will actively participate in the repatriation of fugitive suspects and asset recovery. "Foreign countries must not become a safe haven for the corrupt to escape justice," he said.
Huang Feng, director of the International Criminal Law Research Institute at Beijing Normal University, said that the Chinese government now attaches an unprecedented importance to international anti-graft cooperation, and a series of operations launched have demonstrated its strong political will to strengthen efforts in hunting down overseas fugitives and stepping up international judicial coordination.
