Australian cooperation in nabbing Chinese fugitives shows exhilarating breakthrough
- By Ni Tao
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E-mail Shanghai Daily, October 24, 2014
Fear of complicity
There are signs that the fear of perceived complicity might also be behind some foreign governments' acquiescence in Chinese requests to hand over the fugitives.
In an interview with the Sydney Morning Herald, which broke the story of the Sino-Australian agreement, senior Australian police official Bruce Hill said, "As time goes on, they start to put (their funds) into legitimate assets such as houses and property and shares and bank accounts, and then the money becomes their wealth."
Hill is manager of the Australian Federal Police's operations in Asia.
Through popular investment migrant programs, fugitives are able to launder their ill-gotten gains, posing a challenge to efforts to recover lost state funds.
Australia, and many countries for that matter, certainly doesn't want to be seen as a safe haven for outlaws, or to have their image as a clean, fairly corruption-free country tarnished.
China's economic leverage also goes a long way toward explaining foreign authorities' growing readiness to go along with Chinese global manhunts.
More extradition treaties are expected, for instance, with Germany, where Premier Li Keqiang during his recent visit made a point of urging both sides to speed up talks on better cooperation in extraditing criminal suspects.
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