GRAPPLING with GRAFT after |$1-trillion corruption outflow
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CHINA'S ATTEMPTS TO EXTRADITE OFFICIALS AND BUSINESSMEN WHO HAVE FLED ABROAD ARE BEING STYMIED BY HUMAN-RIGHTS CONCERNS IN THE WEST
At a time when Chinese capital and tourists are flooding into every corner of the world, the Beijing government is seeking the return of hundreds, possibly thousands, of former officials who have fled overseas, taking with them vast sums of illicit money to their newly adopted homes.
A list of 100 wanted criminals issued by Interpol in April showed that the majority were believed to be in North America, with 40 in the United States and 26 in Canada. Some of them have been on the run since the 1990s.
Even Hong Kong, which while a part of China has a separate legal system, was suspected to shelter five. But since mainland influence is so pervasive in the former British colony, it is likely that those who initially sought a haven in Hong Kong would move further afield given the chance.
China is now pressing Western governments to sign extradition treaties. But even in the absence of such treaties, the Chinese government is calling for cooperation.
The lack of extradition treaties doesn’t mean that fugitives and their ill-gotten gains are necessarily safe. In fact, the official China Daily newspaper recently quoted the Canadian ambassador to China, Guy Saint-Jacques, as saying that Canada and China would sign an agreement in the next few months to share the assets that Chinese fugitives have moved illegally into Canada.
“Canada has had very close collaboration with the Chinese government to address such issues,” the ambassador was quoted as saying. “We have no desire to harbour fugitives, and we don’t want to be known as welcoming fugitives.”
China’s most-wanted
Among China’s most-wanted is a man known in Canada as Michael Ching Mo Yeung, a prominent Vancouver property developer, a permanent resident though not a Canadian citizen. He is known in China as Cheng Muyang.
Ching is also a Hong Kong permanent resident. He was chairman of the Hong Kong incorporated company Gard D’Aire International Ltd, which was set up in 2003 and was dissolved five years later.
Western governments, armed with information provided by Beijing, are moving to deport Chinese who had entered their countries illegally.
This appears to be what the United States plans for Yang Xiuzhu, former deputy mayor of Wenzhou, in Zhejiang province, who tops the 100 most-wanted list. She is accused of having taken US$41 million in bribes and the Americans apparently planned to deport her for having allegedly entered the country on a fake Dutch passport.
However, last week Chinese news agency Xinhua reported that she has applied for asylum. Even if the application is ultimately rejected, it will likely delay deportation proceedings.
Other wanted suspects may adopt similar strategies. Moreover, China is known for torturing suspects to obtain confessions, so foreign governments, before returning fugitives to China, may seek guarantees of fair trials and no death penalty from Beijing.
Michael Ching is understood to have submitted an application for refugee status in Canada. He has accused the Chinese authorities of having obtained evidence against him by torturing two of his alleged business associates.
The Vancouver Courier, in a report by Bob Mackin on April 29, disclosed that Ching had filed a statement of claim against the Canadian government in 2012 for 1.75 million Canadian dollars (Bt47.7 million) in damages in which he alleged that the Chinese authorities had been in touch with the Canadian Embassy between 2001 and 2004 and that China’s Ministry of Public Security had asked the Canadian government not to grant him citizenship. Ching’s applications for Canadian citizenship in 2001 and 2004 were denied.
Tip of the iceberg
While the list of 100 underlines China’s desire to see the repatriation of corrupt officials for trial, it is only the tip of the iceberg: hundreds of other Chinese fugitives are already being sought by Interpol. China claims to have successfully obtained the repatriation of 680 fugitives last year.
The amount of money leaving China illicitly is staggering. According to the Washington-based non-profit research organisation Global Financial Integrity, between 2002 and 2011, China saw an outflow of US$1.08 trillion (Bt36 trillion) in illicit funds. Russia, with an outflow of $88 billion, was in second place.
China’s failure to deal with systemic corruption has become a problem for the rest of the world, just like its problems with food safety, with censorship, with disease and with the environment. China is now seeking the help of other countries to clean up the huge mess that it has created through the export of corrupt officials who had abused their power in a system without checks and balances or the rule of law.
