A total of 800 Chinese economic criminals are on the run and some US$70 billion is involved in economy-related crimes, according to a report carried by Hong Kong-based Takungpao on July 4.

Countries like America and Canada have become refuges for corrupt Chinese officials on the run, the report says, adding that no formal bilateral extradition treaty with any developed country in the west is the reason for the trend.

China's death penalty, criticized by countries worldwide, is driving more and more corrupt officials to seek shelter in the US and Canada, the newspaper says.

According to international conventions, criminals will not be extradited to home countries if they face capital punishment.

China is seeking ways to extradite criminals on the run after it signed an expatriation treaty with Spain, the first of such kind with a western country, which was approved by China's State Council, the country's top legislature, on April 29.

The extradition treaty inked with Spain is painted as a breakthrough in China's struggling practices of deporting criminals on the run.

China's head of delegation for negotiation with Spain over the extradition treaty Xu Hong says criminals' extradition to China is helpful in the retrieval of money and goods, a way that can protect the country's interests, according to a report in Half-Month magazine.

"It is much more important than punishing a certain criminal," Xu says, adding that the legal justice is beyond reach if criminals stay in other countries to escape punishment.

China is moving to sign more extradition treaties with other developed countries, in a bid to net criminals on the run, according to the magazine.

In a separate report carried by Southern Weekend on June 15, a Chinese official named Wang Minggao was suggesting the abolition of the death sentence for convicted officials.

China has met mounting pressure in its criminal extradition practices.

In May, Canada's Federal Court stayed the deportation of China's most-wanted smuggling kingpin Lai Changxing, who is seeking refugee status. Lai is accused of being the mastermind behind a Xiamen-based network that smuggled as much as US$10 billion worth of goods, according to state media reports.

Officials fleeing to other countries started in the late 80s.