More Chinese police officers sent overseas to hunt down its fugitives

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More Chinese police officers sent overseas to hunt down its fugitives

PUBLISHED : Monday, 16 February, 2015, 12:28am
UPDATED : Monday, 16 February, 2015, 10:04am

Teddy Ng [email protected]

An alleged "economic fugitive" (wearing mask) arrives in China after 10 years on the run in Italy. Photo: SCMP

China will send more police liaison officers overseas as Beijing boosts efforts to bring home its fugitives and clamp down on nationals fleeing the country for militant Islamist training.

Police liaison officers played a crucial role in repatriating Chinese fugitives and safeguarding the country's national security, public security vice-minister Meng Hongwei said.

In a related move, a document released yesterday on reforming China's public security system said the police should step up coordination with other agencies to increase their effectiveness in apprehending criminal suspects and recovering illicit assets sent overseas.

The public security ministry said China had sent 49 police liaison officers to 27 countries and another 13 were due to travel to four other countries this year.

"There are new opportunities in diplomacy relating to law enforcement and security. The constant changes in international and domestic conditions have created many challenges for police liaison officers," Meng was quoted by state-run Xinhua as saying on Saturday.

The officers would improve coordination of law enforcement resources both within and outside China and would remain loyal to the ruling Communist Party, Meng said.

Xia Chongyuan, director of the public security ministry's political department, said the police liaison officers would improve their foreign language and diplomatic skills as they overcame obstacles in carrying out their operations.

Police liaison officers were first sent to the Chinese embassy in the United States in 1998, but their role has gained significance over the past year as China launched an operation to bring home fugitives as part of President Xi Jinping's far-reaching anti-graft campaign.

Last year, officers brought back to China more than 200 fugitives wanted for corruption and other economic crimes, Xinhua reported.

The nation's top graft-buster, the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, said last month that more than 500 fugitives were returned to China by the end of last year, along with more than three billion yuan (HK$3.78 billion) obtained through illegal means.

Reports of Chinese people, mostly Uygurs, trying to flee China for Southeast Asian nations before heading to Turkey to link up with militant Islamist groups has become a rising security concern.

Citing media estimates, China's former special envoy to the Middle East, Wu Sike, said in July that about 100 Chinese were fighting for extremist group Islamic State.

Reports of Uygurs' arrests in Southeast Asian nations have also become more common. Last month, Malaysia's Home Affairs Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi said more than 300 Chinese nationals used Malaysia as a transit point to join up with Islamic State forces.

Four Chinese Uygurs were also arrested in Indonesia on suspicion of trying to meet the country's most wanted extremist.