China Cooperating With US, Canada, Australia to Repatriate Fugitives

China has provided a priority list of corrupt officials to the US, Canada and Australia to request their assistance in seizing the fugitives, a senior official of the Chinese Communist Party's Central Commission for Discipline Inspection. Moreover, China and Canada are planning to set up a joint task force to capture the economic fugitives.

MOSCOW, December 18 (Sputnik) — China will cooperate with the United States, Canada and Australia to repatriate its fugitives suspected of corruption and to confiscate assets that they have sent abroad, China Daily newspaper reported Thursday, citing the Chinese Communist Party's Central Commission for Discipline Inspection.

"We have provided a priority list of corrupt officials to the US, Canada and Australia to request their assistance in seizing the fugitives," China Daily quoted a senior official at the commission's international cooperation bureau as saying.

"They [the three countries] have initiated procedures to investigate the criminals' visas or green card information," the official added.

Moreover, China and Canada are planning to set up a joint task force to capture the economic fugitives. The US-China Liaison Group on Law Enforcement Cooperation will also address the issue, the newspaper reported.

The problem of corrupt officials fleeing the country and transferring their assets abroad has been pressing in China in recent years. In July, Beijing launched an operation dubbed Fox Hunt 2014 to repatriate corrupt officials. According to China Daily, as of early December, Chinese police had brought back more than 400 economic fugitives from abroad, confiscating their illegally acquired funds.