China's long arm of the law apparently has not reached a high number of Chinese fugitives involved in massive corruption. These suspected criminals have fled abroad taking residence in countries with which China has no extradition agreement.

Chinese President Xi Jinping, in his campaign against anti-corruption, faces a big challenge bringing to justice these fugitives even as he has expanded an already far-reaching campaign to track down suspects who have escaped abroad taking ill-gotten wealth. with them.

Like Us on Facebook

Xi's crackdown on suspected economic criminals has given birth to the "fox hunt" to warn suspected officials against escaping.

The anti-corruption campaign has been seen as lacking teeth since fugitives remain untouched in host countries. China has extradition treaties with 38 countries, but doesn't have one with the United States, Australia, Canada and the Netherlands.

These four destinations have become the popular places for the suspected economic criminals who take advantage of the absence of extradition treaty with China.

Experts said these western governments refuse to hand over the Chinese suspects because of a flawed justice system where the Communist Party controls the courts and subjects suspects to torture to extract confessions. Worse, capital punishment is often meted out to corruption cases.

Chinese officials said some 150 economic fugitives -- the  majority of whom are allegedly corrupt officials -- are living in the United States. China has yet to release the figures of the number of suspects living in all parts of the world.

China has extradited 730 suspects from 12 countries since 2008 on charges of fraud, embezzlement, corruption and money laundering, among other economic crimes, according to state-run Xinhua News Service.

At least 18 suspects have surrendered or have been extradited from Uganda, Indonesia and Cambodia, according to Xinhua. Chinese officials lament the fact that very few have returned from western countries, said a corruption watchdog.

One of the most talked about corruption case involved Lai Changxing. He applied for refugee status in Canada in 1999 claiming corruption charges hurled against him by the Chinese government were politically motivated.

The Canadian court dismissed his application and he was deported in 2011.

A year later, Chinese courts found him guilty of fraud and sentenced him to life imprisonment.

Tagsfugitives, Anti-corruption