US seeks more evidence to pursue fugitive mainland officials

China must provide more evidence about fugitive graft suspects it wants returned from American soil, a U.S. official said as the two countries began annual talks on law-enforcement cooperation in Beijing yesterday.
The departments of Justice and Homeland Security have started investigating suspects being sought by China and need further details on the cases, said Dan Kritenbrink, the U.S. Embassy’s Deputy Chief of Mission in China. China last week called for the U.S. to send back more corruption suspects for trial, saying the country and Canada are the main safe havens used by fleeing officials.
China has so far captured more than 300 economic fugitives from 57 countries and regions in a global effort, dubbed “Operation Fox Hunt 2014,” that began in July as part of President Xi Jinping’s anti-graft campaign, according to data from the Ministry of Public Security. Only a small number of officials who absconded to the U.S. have been successfully repatriated, China said last week.
Talks between the two countries at the two-day China-U.S. Joint Liaison Group will this year focus on anti-corruption, asset forfeiture, cybercrime, intellectual property rights and counter-narcotics efforts, according to the agenda.
The discussions will probably generate some measures on legal cooperation after both nations last month signed the Beijing Anti-Corruption Declaration at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit, Jing Wei, a legal official with China’s central bank, said in an interview on the sidelines of yesterday’s meeting.
The agreement, pushed by Xi as part of his corruption crackdown, aims to spur cooperation between 21 APEC members to fight cross-border bribery and money-laundering, as well as repatriate suspects and return illicit assets.
The two nations might have different expectations from the meeting, yet should work closely together to pursue common interests, Chinese vice Foreign Minister Liu Zhenmin said during the opening ceremony.
Efforts to bring back suspects are being hampered by judges with bias against China’s legal system and the lack of an extradition treaty, Xu Hong, director general of the department of treaty and law at China’s foreign ministry, said last week. Bloomberg