Canada China Sign Pact to Extradite Criminals’ Ill-Gotten Gains

Posted by on Dec 15, 2014 in Blog | 0 comments

A couple months back, I posted urging the Canadian government to sign an extradition treaty with China on the heels of the Australian authorities agreeing to extradite seized assets of corrupt Chinese officials.  Now, the Canadian government has followed suit but the Canadian Ambassador to China Guy Saint-Jacques was emphatic to the China Daily that Canada had no plans to sign a treaty.  Although again slow off the blocks, Canada at least has agreed to do this.  Now, the pressure is on laggard US to ink a deal but I’m not holding my breath.

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Canada is set to sign a deal with China to return ill-gotten assets seized from those suspected of economic crimes, the official China Daily reported on Monday, as Beijing works to track down corrupt officials who have fled overseas.

The world’s second-largest economy has vowed to pursue beyond its borders a search, dubbed Operation “Fox Hunt”, for corrupt officials and business executives, and their assets.

With the deal Canada, one of the top two destinations for suspected economic fugitives from China, becomes the third nation to agree to help Beijing bring such offenders to book, following offers this year from France and Australia.

The pact will cover “the return of property related to people who would have fled to Canada and would have been involved in corrupt activities”, Canada’s ambassador to China, Guy Saint-Jacques, told the China Daily in an interview.

“No country should become a haven for the corrupt to seek refuge from the law,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang told a daily news briefing but gave no details of the pact.

China has extradition pacts with 39 countries but not the United States or Canada, the two places suspected economic fugitives are most likely to go, the Foreign Ministry says.

This month, France said it was ready to help track down people suspected of corruption who may be on French soil. In October, Australian police agreed to assist in the extradition and seizure of assets of corrupt Chinese officials, media said.

China this month asked the U.S. to help it track down more than 100 people suspected of corruption. At least 428 Chinese suspects were captured abroad by the end of October under the “Fox Hunt” campaign, state media reported.

– Reuters