Australia's attorney-general said on Wednesday that the country's judiciary will enhance cooperation with China, especially in repatriating allegedly corrupt Chinese officials.

 

Philip Ruddock said Australia and China had begun talks on an extradition treaty, which would speed up the processing of criminal suspects.

 

Australian immigration law also allowed revocation of visas for criminal suspects and repatriation, he said.

 

China's death penalty could hinder repatriations, but, he said, "Corrupt officials should not profit from it by fleeing to another judicial system."

 

Ruddock was heading a group of judicial officials, lawyers and academics for a week-long visit to Beijing and Shanghai.

 

The delegation and Chinese counterparts talked about the expected Sino-Australian free trade agreement, judicial system building and judicial policies.

 

The two sides also signed agreements on the training of Chinese lawyers and cooperation on dealing with multi-national crimes, such as money laundering and human smuggling.

 

China has been active in seeking international cooperation in its fight against corruption. Chinese prosecutors have brought 70 criminal suspects back to China from abroad since 1998.

 

The successful extradition from the United States of a Guangdong Province branch head of the Bank of China in 2004 was lauded as a powerful deterrent to corruption.

 

Yu Zhendong, the banker, was convicted of misappropriating US$483 million before fleeing to the US.

 

Sources from the Ministry of Public Security said 800 suspects wanted for alleged economic crimes were at large abroad. They are accused of embezzling nearly 70 billion yuan (US$875 million).

 

(Xinhua News Agency July 6, 2006)