A four-day conference, in Xianghe of Hebei Province, attended by over 900 delegates
representing anti-corruption authorities from 137 countries and
regions as well as 12 international organizations, ended up with
the establishment of the International Association of
Anti-Corruption Authorities (IAACA) on October 25.
"To establish such an association was a common wish of many
countries in the world, especially China," Chu Huaizhi, a law
professor of Peking University, was quoted by the Beijing
News as saying on November 3. Chu is also a member of the
Consulting Committee of the Supreme People's Procuratorate.
According to the Ministry of Public Security, at the end of
2005, China had over 500 economic criminal suspects at large, most
of them corrupt officials, and money involved totaling 70 billion
yuan (US$8.9 billion).
Given current circumstances, in its fight against fugitive
criminals, China has trouble with fund recovery, evidence
collection, and extradition, Chu said.
"To recover embezzled money, a fugitive's property needs to be
confiscated at first," he said. However, since trial in absentia is
not part of China's penal code, expropriation based on a court
decision is impossible.
A court in a foreign country may be asked to conduct a trial,
but this requires the Chinese government to prove the money was
obtained illegally. Nevertheless, China's evidence system is very
different from that of Western countries, "leading to a
non-acceptance of evidence it has gathered by foreign judicial
organs in most cases," Chu said.
For instance, Yu Zhendong, former president of the Kaiping city
branch of the Bank of China in Guangdong Province, who was accused of
embezzlement of public funds, transferred hundreds of millions of
dollars to foreign accounts. So far, only a fraction of this has
been recovered.
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Most high-ranking officials embezzling vast sums of money usually
escape to developed countries like the US, Canada and Australia,
with which China has no extradition treaties. "This explains why
the repatriation of Lai Changxing was delayed again and again," Chu
said. Lai, the mastermind of a US$10 billion scheme, fled to Canada
in 1999 with his wife and children and was described as "China's
most wanted fugitive."
The UN Convention Against Corruption was adopted in October 2003
and entered into vigor in December 2005. It will facilitate global
cooperation in fighting graft, helped by special international
organization playing a coordinating role. "The IAACA emerged at the
right moment," Chu said.
"The IAACA's regulations adopted at the Xianghe conference
explicitly state its nature as an independent, non-governmental,
non-political, non-profit international organization," IAACA
Secretary-General Ye Feng told the Beijing News on
November 1. Ye also serves as director of the Foreign Affairs
Bureau of China's Supreme People's Procuratorate.
International judicial collaboration is a highly complex issue,
involving many sensitive issues such as human rights, death
penalty, various political factors and national interests. As an
NGO, the IAACA composed of procuratorial organs in charge of
anti-corruption in member states combines authoritativeness with
efficiency and flexibility, and provides a multilateral opportunity
to boost the global fight against corruption, Ye said.
The Xianghe conference also formulated IAACA's development
strategy, including:
- Establishing efficient information exchange mechanisms;
- Providing technical training enabling member states to educate
each other in anti-corruption work;
- Building up direct cooperation mechanisms to gather evidence,
chase and extradite fugitives, and return embezzled money;
- Holding annual meetings, regional conferences and regular
symposiums to promote direct anti-corruption efforts.
Direct cooperation is very difficult, Prof. Huang Feng of
Beijing Normal University said, "requiring full confidence among
member states, norms that can be jointly adhered to, and a
professional and highly efficient permanent institution."
"Offering training to personnel from developing nations is one
of IAACA's functions that merit cheers," Prof. Chu Huaizhi said,
adding that as concerning developing countries, learning from the
experience of procuratorial bodies in developed countries or
regions is essential for their fight against corruption. Last year
China's Hong Kong received 80 judicial officials from 24 countries
to take 10 anti-corruption training programs.
(China.org.cn by Shao Da, November 10, 2006)