China's most-wanted fugitive in US custody

China's most-wanted fugitive, an official accused of embezzling more than $40 million, is in US custody, according to the country's top anti-graft agency.

Yang Xiuzhu, who fled China in 2003, was detained after entering the US using a fake Dutch passport last year, according to the Party's Central Commission for Discipline Inspection.

In the first confirmation of Yang's whereabouts in a decade, the commission's International Cooperation Department said she escaped from detention in the Netherlands in May 2014 - after being rejected for political asylum and before she could be sent back to China.

A person going by the same name and born in the same year is in custody at the Hudson County correctional facility in New Jersey, according to a database maintained by the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency.

"The momentum of cooperation with the US is very good," Fu Kui, director of international cooperation at the CCDI, said in an interview in Beijing on Wednesday, in which he discussed China's campaigns to track and return suspects. "There has been some progress and examples of success and there is room for greater cooperation."

Repatriating former officials who have absconded is a key cog of President Xi Jinping's fight against corruption, which he has called a "life and death" matter for the Party and the country. A former deputy mayor of the coastal city of Wenzhou, Yang, 68, was ranked number one on a list of 100 people China says are hiding abroad to avoid prosecution for graft.

Catching these fugitives "is a key aspect of the anti-corruption campaign," Fu said. "If we leave an escape here, we won't be able to deter officials who think they can get away with corruption."