Chinese 'most-wanted' fugitive returns seven years after fleeing to Canada

By

REUTERS

·last updated: 07/11/2017

BEIJING (Reuters) – One of China’s “most-wanted” overseas fugitives, a manager in a real estate company sought on charges of corruption and bribery, turned himself in on Tuesday after fleeing to Canada seven years ago, the anti-graft agency said. He Jian, a manager in the northern province of Hebei who had fled in September 2010, becomes the 49th on a list of 100 most-wanted individuals to return, the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI) said on its website. Reuters could not immediately reach He, his family, or a legal representative to seek comment. He’s assets were frozen after he fled and Interpol issued a “red notice” for his provisional arrest, the agency said, but it did not make clear where He lived after his flight to Canada, nor from which country he had returned. The widely-publicised “Fox Hunt” and “Sky Net” operations to repatriate overseas fugitives suspected of corruption and economic crimes constitute a key plank of President Xi Jinping’s sweeping anti-graft campaign. China published its list of “most-wanted” suspects believed to be hiding overseas in April 2015. But it has had limited success in securing cooperation from Western countries, including Australia, Canada and the United States, where many of the most wanted live, largely because of what those governments see as a lack of transparency and due process in China’s judicial system.