No. 1 Hongtong surrendered and Yang Xiuzhu was arrested
At about 3 pm on November 16, at the Beijing Capital Airport, Yang Xiuzhu, the number one suspect of "100 Hongtong personnel" and the former deputy director of the Zhejiang Provincial Construction Department, stepped down from the gangway of the plane, ending his 13-year escape career in many countries.
On that day, under the overall coordination of the Office of International Fugitive and Asset Recovery of the Central Anti-Corruption Coordination Group, and through close cooperation between the judicial, law enforcement and foreign affairs departments of our country and the United States, Yang Xiuzhu, the number one suspect of "100 Hongtong personnel" and a 13-year-old fugitive, returned from the United States and surrendered. This incident has engraved a new imprint in the process of our country's anti-corruption international fugitive and asset recovery work and written a new chapter in the process of China-US anti-corruption law enforcement cooperation.
The central government is determined to set up "Skynet"
Yang Xiuzhu, female, born in 1946, served as the deputy mayor of Wenzhou City, Zhejiang Province in January 1995, and was a member of the party group and deputy director of the Zhejiang Provincial Construction Department in 1998. Yang was suspected of corruption and bribery during his tenure as the deputy mayor of Wenzhou City. In February 2003, the Zhejiang Provincial Procuratorate found clues about Yang Xiuzhu's suspected crime when investigating the suspected bribery case of Yang Moumou, deputy general manager of Wenzhou Railway Real Estate Development Company.
Like most corrupt officials who fled abroad, Yang Xiuzhu orchestrated and planned for a long time before fleeing. Before fleeing, she arranged for her main relatives to emigrate overseas, accepted bribes directly abroad, and used her long-term authority in charge of urban construction to illegally transfer land to others.
On April 20, 2003, Yang Xiuzhu and her daughter and son-in-law took a flight to Singapore via Hong Kong. Subsequently, they fled to Italy, France, the Netherlands, Canada, the United States and other places.
On June 16, 2003, the Zhejiang Provincial People's Procuratorate launched an investigation on suspicion of corruption and bribery and approved the arrest of Yang Xiuzhu. On July 22, it issued a red notice through the International Criminal Police Organisation. In 2005, the Central Anti-Corruption Coordination Group listed Yang Xiuzhu as a key target for overseas arrest and directly supervised the case.
Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, the Central Committee has attached great importance to and actively promoted international cooperation in anti-corruption and the pursuit of fugitives and assets. General Secretary Xi Jinping has repeatedly emphasized that even if corrupt elements flee to the ends of the earth, they must be brought back to justice.
In January, at the Sixth Plenary Session of the 18th Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, General Secretary Xi Jinping said, "Implement major special projects to spread the net of corruption around the world, let those who have absconded have nowhere to hide, and let those who attempt to flee lose their illusions."
In accordance with the decision-making and deployment of the Party Central Committee, since 2014, our country has established the International Office of Fugitive and Asset Recovery of the Central Anti-Corruption Coordination Group, and has successively carried out "Skynet 2015" and "Skynet 2016" special projects. In April 2015, the Central Fugitive Office focused on exposing 100 suspected government officials suspected of criminal flight and those involved in important corruption cases who have been issued red notices by the International Criminal Police Organisation. Yang Xiuzhu, as the number one suspect of "100 Hongtong personnel", has undoubtedly become the top priority of attention.
From the full launch in 2014, to the speed shift in 2015, and then to the 2016 crackdown, a set of data clearly witnessed the steady progress of the anti-corruption international fugitive recovery and asset recovery work. As of September 2016, 2,210 fugitives have been recovered from more than 70 countries and regions, including 363 government officials, and the stolen goods have been recovered for 7.994 billion yuan. 37 "100 Hongtong personnel" have been arrested.
Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, the Party Central Committee has focused on the overall situation of comprehensive and strict governance of the party and anti-corruption work, opened up a new battlefield in the anti-corruption struggle, won the hearts and minds of the party and the people internally, firmly occupied the international moral high ground externally, and exerted strong pressure on the corrupt elements who fled abroad. This has clearly sent a strong signal to Yang Xiuzhu that the ends of the earth, although far away, must be pursued.
Liu Jianchao, deputy director of the National Corruption Prevention Bureau and director of the International Cooperation Bureau of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, said in an interview with reporters, "Yang Xiuzhu's arrest is a major victory for my international anti-corruption efforts to recover fugitives and assets. It demonstrates the clear position and firm determination of the Party Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping as the core to pursue corrupt elements who have fled to the end of the world, and it releases a strong signal that'corrupt elements who have fled to the ends of the earth must be brought back to justice. '"
The Central Pursuit and Escape Office coordinates and forms a joint force for pursuit and escape
On November 7, about a week before Yang Xiuzhu's arrest, the members of the Central Pursuit and Escape Office and the comrades of the Zhejiang Provincial Pursuit and Escape Office were urgently holding a coordination meeting to discuss the preparations for Yang Xiuzhu's arrest. It was the early winter in the north, and the discussion in the house about the division of tasks, the control of details, and matters needing attention was in full swing. This was just one of many coordination meetings and promotion meetings held by the Central and Provincial Pursuit and Escape Offices around Yang Xiuzhu's case.
In July 2014, Yang Xiuzhu, who was detained in prison, filed an asylum application with the US government and the case was transferred to immigration court for trial.
"In the United States, an application for asylum needs to go through the first instance of the immigration court, the administrative review of the immigration appeals panel within the Ministry of Justice, and the judicial review of the federal appeals court. It often takes several years to go through these three-level procedures." According to the relevant person in charge of the Department of Treaties and Law of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, this means that Yang can use this to delay time and then achieve the purpose of long-term stay in the United States. The absence of an extradition treaty between China and the United States also brings difficulties and obstacles to the pursuit of escape.
Faced with a difficult and complex case, the comrades of the central and provincial escape offices worked hard, analyzed the case, discussed strategies, and finally determined the three-pronged pursuit and escape strategy of "persuading return, repatriation, and prosecution in different places."
In order to get the US to reject Yang Xiuzhu's asylum application and promote the US to deport Yang Xiuzhu as an illegal immigrant, China insists on combining internal and external investigations to comprehensively collect evidence of Yang Xiuzhu's suspected crimes in China.
Due to the cumbersome and time-consuming procedures for rejecting asylum applications and advancing immigration repatriation, remote prosecution is also advancing in an orderly manner. Remote prosecution is to convict and sentence fugitives in accordance with the laws of the country where they fled, so it is necessary to focus on their criminal facts in the United States, such as money laundering crimes and illegal immigration. Yang Xiuzhu's evidence of suspected corruption crimes and cross-border money laundering in China and the United States has been submitted to the United States one after another, laying a solid foundation for law enforcement cooperation between China and the United States, and the persuasion work has also been carried out as scheduled.
The domestic rear provided him with persuasion and education through his relatives, and conveyed to him China's firm determination to pursue the fugitives and recover the stolen goods. The consuls of the former Foreign Ministry's embassy and consulate in the United States visited Yang Xiuzhu many times and insisted on doing his ideological work.
At the same time, the procuratorial organs filed cases to investigate and deal with the important domestic suspects in Yang Xiuzhu's case, especially the criminals who transferred the stolen money for him, while the assets of Yang Xiuzhu involved in the case were found and frozen together abroad. Yang Xiuzhu fell into a situation where there was no money to spend, no one was reliable, and there was no way to escape. The stubborn mentality of "dying in the United States" was gradually disintegrated, which laid the foundation for the promotion of the return work.
Under the overall coordination of the Central Pursuit and Evasion Office, the Supreme People's Procuratorate, the Supreme People's Court, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Security, the Ministry of Public Security, the Ministry of Justice, and the People's Bank of China, as well as the Provincial Pursuit and Evasion Office, worked closely together to consolidate the overall work and continuously squeeze Yang Xiuzhu's living space in the United States, prompting her to return home and surrender.
China and the United States expand channels and break through key cases
Chasing and fleeing Yang Xiuzhu requires a comprehensive investigation, but it is also inseparable from practical international cooperation.
At the request of the Chinese, both France and the Netherlands rejected Ms. Yang's asylum applications. The dream of impunity in Europe has been shattered, and the United States is not a fantasy "haven from sin".
In May 2014, Yang Xiuzhu fled to New York with a fake passport. After the US received a request for judicial assistance from the Chinese side, it arrested and detained him. In December of the same year, at the 12th Plenary Session of the China-US Joint Liaison Group on Law Enforcement Cooperation (JLG), the two sides identified Yang Xiuzhu's case as the number one pursuit case, with special personnel and special classes, and concentrated resources to break through. In the following two years, China and the United States have jointly investigated and collected evidence on Yang's suspected criminal behavior in the United States, and Beijing, Hangzhou, Washington, New York and other places have left the footprints of joint investigation by China and the United States.
While the United States launched criminal prosecutions against Yang Xiuzhu for entering the country with a fake passport and suspected money laundering crimes, it also hired lawyers to deal with his asylum application litigation. The evidence provided by the Chinese side on Yang's suspected corruption crimes in China and the rejection of Yang Xiuzhu's asylum application by France and the Netherlands became an important basis.
On September 18, 2015, Yang Xiuzhu's younger brother, Yang Jinjun, was deported by the US police, forming a strong psychological shock to Yang Xiuzhu.
Domestic "hunters" are pressing step by step, and China and the United States have joined hands to cooperate, making Yang Xiuzhu's living space in the United States increasingly narrow. Due to the long-term prison life, the slightest hope of asylum requests, and the growing desire to return to their roots, on July 11, 2016, under the influence of strong legal deterrence and policies, Yang Xiuzhu asked the United States to revoke her asylum application, formally offered to return to China and surrender, "unconditionally returning to accept legal punishment". In August, the US Immigration Court ruled that Yang Xiuzhu was allowed to revoke her asylum application and issued a deportation order in court.
In September, the 11th meeting of the Sino-US JLG Anti-Corruption Working Group was held in the United States. The two sides formed a timetable and roadmap for Yang Xiuzhu's arrest, and reached a preliminary consensus on arrangements for Yang's return to China to surrender.
On November 16, a flight AA263 from Dallas landed at Beijing Capital Airport. So far, Yang Xiuzhu's case has been settled.
Referring to the effectiveness of law enforcement cooperation between China and the United States, Liu Jianchao said, "Yang Xiuzhu's arrest is not only a landmark achievement of China's anti-corruption international fugitive and asset recovery work, but also a major achievement of China-US law enforcement cooperation. In the next step, China and the United States will continue to cooperate to recover the remaining assets involved in the case."
Overseas is not extrajudicial, and escape is not a way out. Foreign countries are by no means a "haven for criminals" for corrupt elements, and it is impossible to run away. No matter how long and far you flee, you will eventually not be able to escape the pursuit of Skynet and avoid the trial of the law. This is true for Yang Xiuzhu, and it is no exception for all corrupt elements who are still fleeing. (Li Juan, website of the Supervision Department of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection)
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