China will launch “Sky Net” campaign to capture fugitive officials

World Today

Illustration of China’s Sky Net campaign by China Foto Press

A campaign to capture corrupt officials who have fled abroad, carrying the name “Sky Net”, will be launched next month, the top anti-graft authority said on Thursday.

This campaign follows the success of Operation Fox Hunt in 2014.

From April, the campaign will focus on fugitive officials, illegal certificates, underground banks, and misappropriated assets, according to a meeting of the central authority’s anti-graft coordination group.

Sky Net will involve several government departments, including the Organizational Department of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, the Supreme People’s Procuratorate, the Ministry of Public Security, the People’s Bank of China, also known as the central bank.

The Ministry of Public Securty will focus on the seizure of fugitive suspects implicated in corruption cases, while the procuratorate will take charge of those suspected of duty-related crimes.

In addition, the central bank will work with public security on crimes that involve the transfer of money abroad, while the Organizational Department of the CPC Central Committee will check travel documents.

The ongoing counter-corruption drive has already led to the conviction of nearly 100 “tigers”, or high-ranking officials, and many more minor officials, known colloqually as “flies”.

It aims to block the “last route of retreat” for corrupt officials.

A total of 680 fugitives suspected of economic crimes were repatriated to China from July-Dec last year.

Huang Shuxian, deputy head of the CPC Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, who also heads the office that pursues fugitive suspects and stolen assets, urged central and local departments to make coordinated efforts to ensure corrupt officials are brought home to face justice.

Story complied from Xinhua News.