Campaign to hunt down fugitives is relaunched

China relaunched its campaign on Wednesday to capture corrupt officials who have sought shelter abroad.

The central anti-graft coordination group's office for pursuing fugitives and stolen assets in foreign countries launched the Sky Net 2021 campaign to hunt down more fugitives.

The office said in a statement that this year's campaign will focus on key cases and fugitives who have fled in recent years who held public positions above the county level and whose cases involved a large amount of money or had a bad political or social impact.

The office will also beef up efforts to target corrupt fugitives in the fields of finance, State-owned enterprises, political and legal affairs, and civil affairs.

It vowed that the tough attitude toward corruption and the determination and scale of the crackdown will be undiminished.

The campaign will be carried out jointly by several different departments. The National Supervisory Commission will take the lead in tracking down fugitives and retrieving stolen assets.

The Ministry of Public Security will launch an operation to crack down on fraud and handle cases involving illicit residential identities or international travel documents. It and the People's Bank of China will target illegal international money transfers through offshore companies or underground banks.

The Supreme People's Court and the Supreme People's Procuratorate, China's highest judicial organs, will be responsible for recovering stolen assets in cases where suspects and defendants have fled or died.

China launched the first Sky Net campaign in 2015. In last year's operation, 1,421 fugitives, including 28 on Interpol's Red Notice list, were brought back to China, with about 2.95 billion yuan ($457 million) in illicit gains retrieved.