China launches programme to prevent corrupt officials from fleeing country

Ten Chinese provinces and municipalities have launched a pilot programme to prevent corrupt or undisciplined officials from fleeing the country.

The project,which also aims to repatriate criminals from abroad, will run till August next year.

The programme will be effective in Heilongjiang, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Fujian, Jiangxi, Shandong, Henan, Guangdong and Yunnan provinces and the Shanghai municipality, the China Daily reports.

"Authorities must improve their work to prevent escapes and to catch fugitives abroad," Central Commission for Discipline Inspection Deputy Secretary Gan Yisheng said.

Nanjing Discipline Inspection Commission Deputy Secretary Hou Chengxin said the applications by officials for overseas trips must be strictly reviewed.

Government officials and employees are required to register their private overseas trips with the authorities in China, as part of a measure to prevent them from fleeing the country.

"This will help motivate the local governments' initiatives and regulate them to participate in supervising and reporting relevant cases involved with corrupt officials fleeing overseas," Beijing Normal University's Criminal Law Research Institute's Professor Huang Feng said. (ANI)