Podcast: Story in the Story (1/28/2019 Mon.)
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From the People's Daily app.

And this is Story in the Story.

In 2015, China launched Sky Net, an anti-corruption initiative aimed at repatriating the country’s white-collar fugitives.

Since then, over 5,000 Chinese fugitives from over 120 countries and regions, including 56 listed on the Interpol Red Notice have been returned to China. The efforts have also recovered 10 billion yuan.

Last year, the global anti-corruption manhunt nabbed 1,335 fugitives and recovered over $500 million US dollars.

According to the CPC Central Commission for Discipline Inspection and National Supervisory Commission, the fugitives included 307 former members of the Communist Party of China (CPC) or government employees. While five were on the Interpol Red Notice, a list of the 100 most wanted Chinese fugitives.

Today’s Story in the Story looks at Sky Net, an anti-corruption initiative aimed at repatriating China’s white-collar fugitives.

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(Photo: China Daily)

Sweeping victory is the key expression that was used to describe what China has achieved in its anti-graft campaign at the third plenary session of the 19th CPC Central Commission for Discipline Inspection in Beijing.

This includes all-out efforts to hunt those corrupt elements seeking refuge in a foreign land, in which other countries have contributed to the success.

In 2018, the National Supervision Commission, the Supreme People's Court, the Supreme People's Procuratorate, and the ministries of foreign affairs and public security, jointly released a notice urging those corrupt fugitives overseas to hand themselves in.

During the last five months of 2018, 441 fugitives from 46 countries and regions were returned to China, and among them, 165 had surrendered on their own recognizance.

The actions China takes to hunt these people down is of great importance to the country's campaign against corruption.

China launched Sky Net, otherwise known as Operation Fox Hunt, to capture white-collar criminals living abroad with their illegal assets.

CCTV recently launched a five-part documentary series on Sky Net depicting how some of the fugitives who were on the Interpol Red Notice were returned to China and brought to justice. 

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Yang Xiuzhu, China's most-wanted fugitive, talks about her experiences while on the run on a CCTV documentary about operation "Sky Net". (Photo: China Daily)

With the support of the Communist Party of China Central Commission for Discipline Inspection and the National Supervisory Commission, the production team went to 17 countries and regions, including the United States, Britain, New Zealand, Kenya and Peru to shoot footage.

The series, named Red Notice, covers 15 high-profile cases and presents a large number of interviews with Chinese and overseas law enforcement officers.

"I felt greatly relieved after returning to China. My life as a fugitive had finally ended," said Huang Haiyong, a fugitive who was extradited from Peru in 2016 after 18 years on the run.

Huang, former head of Yuwei Trading Industry in Shenzhen, Guangdong Province, stands accused of smuggling goods worth 1.22 billion yuan ($179 million) and evading 717 million yuan in taxes.

He fled to Peru in 1998 and was detained there in 2008. China then started an eight-year extradition process for his return to face trial.

La Yifan, head of the CCDI's International Cooperation Bureau, called for those who are still at large to return voluntarily.

"Fugitives should give up the fantasy, plead guilty in a timely manner and return their ill-gotten funds to get leniency in sentencing," he said.

(Produced by Nancy Yan Xu, Lance Crayon, Brian Lowe, and Chelle Wenqian Zeng. Music by: Bensound.com. Text from China Daily and Global Times.)