Chapter 49 Chapter 47: Tighten the Fence Against Corrupt Officials

To reduce the possibility of corrupt officials fleeing abroad, the key is to focus on building a sunny administration so that power can "run naked" under the effective constraints of laws and regulations. The regulations on the reporting of personal matters by leading cadres and the two interim regulations on strengthening the management of state employees whose spouses and children have emigrated abroad (territory) were deliberated at the meeting of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee on April 23, 2010. It has become a hot topic of anti-corruption. "These two interim regulations have further moved the anti-corruption gate forward and strengthened the supervision of power. They are aimed at preventing corrupt officials from fleeing abroad. They are an important measure to actively respond to social concerns." Professor Li Chengyan, a doctoral supervisor at the School of Government and Administration of Peking University, was interviewed by reporters. The case is evaluated.

In recent years, some corrupt officials in our country have cooperated with their spouses and children who have emigrated overseas, secretly transferred a large amount of assets from corruption and bribery abroad, and fled if the momentum is not right. According to many interviewed experts, to reduce the possibility of corrupt officials fleeing abroad, the key is to focus on building a sunny administration so that power can be "naked" under the effective constraints of laws and regulations; only by implementing the property declaration system for officials as soon as possible, and improving and perfecting corrupt officials The flight warning mechanism is the fundamental solution.

With the opening of the door, more and more Chinese people go to the world to study, do business, and immigrate, including the spouses and children of many officials. At present, the public refers to officials whose spouses and children have settled abroad (outside) or have acquired foreign nationality or obtained permanent residence outside the country (outside) not because of work needs, as "naked officials."Among the corrupt officials who fled abroad in the past, "naked officials" accounted for a considerable proportion. "Among the fugitive corrupt officials, those with high status and high case value tend to look at immigrant countries such as Canada, the United States, and Australia. Those with lower status choose Latin America, Africa, Eastern Europe, or neighboring countries. The Pacific island countries and some countries in Central America, too. Some popular locations for corrupt officials fleeing abroad." Li Chengyan analyzed, "These corrupt officials fleeing abroad are generally 'top leaders' in state-owned enterprises. In the government, most of them are officials at the bureau level or above. The money they took away mainly came from financial institutions' Loans', land development, urban construction project funding, taxation, large national construction project funds and withheld government spending, etc."

According to the analysis of the situation disclosed in recent years, among the corrupt officials who have fled abroad are Yu Zhendong, the former president of the Kaiping branch of the Bank of China, Zhou Jinhuo, the former director of the Fujian Provincial Administration for Industry and Commerce, Jiang Jifang, the former director of the Henan Tobacco Monopoly Bureau, Lan Fu, the former deputy mayor of Xiamen, and Zhejiang Jianshe. Yang Xiuzhu, the former deputy director of the Department, Lu Wanli, the former director of the Transportation Department of Guizhou Province, Liu Zuoqing, the former general manager of the Heilongjiang Petroleum Company, and so on.

According to insiders, a huge invisible chain of interests has been formed during the flight of corrupt officials.Some international service agencies specialize in providing services for the children of corrupt officials to study abroad and their spouses to settle down, and to transfer property for officials to profit from it. How many corrupt officials have fled abroad in our country?There is still no unified statement so far.A few years ago, some media reported that, according to statistics from the Ministry of Commerce, since the reform and opening up, the number of corrupt officials who have fled from my country has been about 4,000, and they have taken away about 50 billion US dollars in funds, with an average per capita amount of nearly 100 million yuan.

The above data has been widely quoted by the media, but on April 25, 2010, the relevant person in charge of the Information Office of the Ministry of Commerce stated that the Ministry of Commerce has never formally conducted such an investigation, nor issued such a report. On May 23, 2006, the Ministry of Public Security and the Audit Office jointly held a press conference on combating economic crimes for the first time, stating that there are about 800 economic crime suspects who have fled abroad in my country, and 320 people have been arrested in recent years, directly involved in the case The amount is nearly 70 billion yuan.

However, judging from the research data provided to reporters by the Research Center for Integrity Construction of Peking University on April 28, 2010, its statistics are closer to those denied by the Ministry of Commerce. According to many interviewees, the number of corrupt officials fleeing abroad is still a mystery due to factors such as statistical standards and different statistical caliber settings. However, based on the analysis of past disclosures, it is obvious that it will not be a small number. Many interviewed experts admitted that the successful escape of corrupt officials shows that there are still obvious loopholes in the system. This not only severely damages the effectiveness of anti-corruption, but also puts my country's political, economic, and military security in a dangerous state, and seriously damages my country's international reputation. .

"Some officials usually have signs of fleeing, and the relevant departments have failed to supervise such 'potential' corrupt officials, making it easier for corrupt officials to flee." Yin Yungong, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, analyzed, "The continuous flight of corrupt officials is related to the high-pressure domestic anti-corruption situation. However, the direct reason why corrupt officials were able to flee with the money after accumulating money is that the supervisory department did not have information about their family property and family members.”

He believes that my country's judicial extradition is not yet fully in line with international standards, which adds to the fluke mentality of fleeing corrupt officials.At present, although my country has signed extradition agreements with dozens of countries, most developed countries are not among them. "Officials whose spouses and children emigrate abroad are not necessarily corrupt officials. But finding ways to get their spouses and children abroad first to leave a way out for themselves is a common trick used by modern corrupt officials, and it is no secret." Researcher at the National Academy of Administration , Dr. Hu Xianzhi, deputy secretary-general of the National Policy Science Research Association, believes.

"The frequent and successful escape of corrupt officials also serves as a demonstration effect for the lurking corrupt officials in the country." Hu Xianzhi said worriedly, "If officials step on two boats, wear life jackets, and are ready to abandon boats and flee at any time, this will not only affect the normal work of the country. It will seriously damage the morale of the people; it will also damage the image of the country in the world, hurt the national feelings, and destroy the centripetal force and cohesion of the motherland." "With the existence of naked officials, when making major international decisions involving their spouses and children, they will inevitably not favor the interests of the relevant countries." Yin Yungong said, "It is worthy of vigilance that some corrupt officials who have fled abroad have previously mastered important state secrets in related fields. content, after they flee abroad, they are easy to be bribed by hostile forces, posing a potential threat to our country’s politics, military, and economy.”

Various regulations issued by the central and local governments in recent years target "naked officials."For example, party members and leading cadres are required to declare the situation of their spouses and children going abroad (territory) to settle down, and to conduct a general survey of marriage and family foreign-related situations of officials above the county level, and so on.In addition, some places have introduced a system for reporting the personal situation of officials. In September 2009, the Fourth Plenary Session of the 17th Central Commission for Discipline Inspection proposed for the first time to strengthen the management of public officials whose spouses and children have emigrated abroad. In November 2009, Shenzhen stipulated that "naked officials" should not serve as party and government officials or as members of important departments.In order to prevent "naked officials" from fleeing abroad, the Organization Department of the Guangdong Provincial Party Committee also stipulates that 12 items of personal information must be reported before the promotion of provincial cadres. On February 22, 2010, the Ministry of Supervision issued the "Key Points of Work of the National Bureau of Corruption Prevention in 2010", among which "study and strengthen the specific implementation measures for the management of public officials whose spouses and children have immigrated to the country (territory)" is impressively listed .This is also the first time that the supervision of "naked officials" has been announced as the work focus of the Ministry of Supervision and the National Bureau of Corruption Prevention. At the same time, the central government is also accelerating the process of promoting the construction of an official property declaration system. In January 2010, the Fifth Plenary Session of the 17th Central Commission for Discipline Inspection emphasized that the scope of official property declaration should be expanded to include housing, investment, and the employment of spouses and children in the report, and strengthened the inspection of spouses and children who have moved abroad (territory). management of public officials. In 2010, the central government deliberated on two interim regulations, once again targeting "naked officials."In this regard, Li Chengyan pointed out: "The most important feature of the official property declaration system is that the content of official declarations is disclosed to the public and accepts public supervision. Although the two interim regulations cannot be regarded as an official property declaration system, they have already moved towards the establishment of a property declaration system. A more substantial step has been taken.” At the same time, our country has also stepped up efforts to pursue and persuade corrupt officials who have fled abroad.From the early 1990s to the present, some corrupt officials who fled abroad have been extradited back to China.However, the pursuit of fugitive corrupt officials around the world still faces many practical problems such as "difficulties in investigation and evidence collection, difficulties in extradition of personnel, and difficulties in returning funds." According to the reporter's understanding, after my country joined the "United Nations Convention against Corruption" in 2005, it has strengthened cooperation with the international community, and the living space of corrupt officials fleeing abroad has been continuously compressed.In addition, our country has also cooperated with neighboring countries to strengthen close cooperation in combating the flight of corrupt officials. In January 2010, the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, the Ministry of Supervision, the Organization Department of the Central Committee, the Ministry of Public Security, the Ministry of Justice, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs jointly established an inter-ministerial joint meeting system for the coordination mechanism for preventing the flight of public officials who violate discipline and law.Leading units and co-organizers of some provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities) have formulated work specifications for contact and cooperation. There are various indications that as my country's anti-corruption system becomes more mature, the "gateway" for corrupt officials to flee will become tighter and tighter. Many interviewed experts believe that due to legal, political, cultural and other factors, it is extremely difficult for my country to extradite corrupt officials from overseas, and the cost of chasing them is high.Therefore, it is particularly urgent to improve and improve the early warning mechanism for the flight of corrupt officials as soon as possible. "For officials who have been elected by the People's Congress at the same level or exercise voting rights, not only should they announce the overseas study and living conditions of their spouses and children, but they should also openly accept inquiries from representatives of the People's Congress." , not to impose a 'presumption of guilt' on officials. But officials, as public figures, should give up part of their personal privacy when there is a conflict between public interests and personal privacy to ensure the protection of public interests, which is a common principle in most countries in the world today." In her opinion, it usually takes a long time for an official to send his spouse and children abroad to emigrate.In this process, close observation and strengthening supervision will help strengthen prevention. "On behalf of the election officials, you can openly question this matter, which can effectively prevent corrupt officials who tend to flee from being elected to the team, and can also serve as a warning to officials who have this tendency." "Strict reporting and filing systems should be established and perfected for the spouses and children of party members and leading cadres to move overseas." Yin Yungong suggested, "Strictly control the approval of officials and their spouses and children to go abroad (border), especially for officials to go abroad (border) for private purposes. Officials whose family members emigrate abroad cannot hold important positions, or if officials want to hold important positions, their family members should be strictly prohibited from emigrating abroad.” "It needs to be explained that this does not mean that the spouses and children of officials have no right to go abroad, but that the system requirements for middle and high-level officials should be stricter on the immigration issue." Yin Yungong further explained. Many interviewed experts also suggested that relevant departments should pay attention to cleaning up the intermediary service market for going abroad, and severely punish illegal organizations that provide a series of services for corrupt officials to settle overseas, transfer assets, and flee.In particular, it is necessary to strengthen the monitoring and control of the cross-border transfer of assets or capital, and effectively prevent the transfer of assets abroad.It is also necessary to strengthen border control, establish a sound anti-money laundering legal system, and strengthen international cooperation. Lin, a professor at the Department of Political Science and Law of the Central Party School who has been engaged in research on the prevention of corrupt officials for a long time, believes: "The review system for the children of officials going abroad should be strengthened, and the major event reporting system should be used to standardize it. The annual income declaration situation will be linked and inspected, and the publicity link will be increased.” "Officials report personal matters, not only to report to their superiors, but also to accept public supervision. There must be a supporting system, a corresponding verification mechanism to follow up, and corresponding punishment measures for false reports and concealed reports. To achieve the fundamental effect.” Li Chengyan said, “The extradition cost of corrupt officials fleeing abroad is very high, and the best way is to improve and improve the early warning mechanism for corrupt officials fleeing abroad. Therefore, it is better to implement the official property declaration system sooner rather than later, and the later the greater the resistance. " "The lack of an official property declaration system has become an important obstacle to my country's anti-corruption." Zeng Guangyu, former secretary-general of the 10th Beijing Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference and vice chairman of the Beijing Municipal Committee of the China Democratic National Construction Association, said bluntly, "It is not easy to implement the official property declaration system in one step. Realistic. However, it can be piloted first in some departments related to major national interests, such as national defense, finance, political law, etc. It can try to establish a hierarchical publicity system. For example, it is clearly stipulated at what level and above officials must disclose personal and family information, and the objects of publicity , It can be implemented within the party first, then outside the party, and the main body of the publicity can be the high-level, and then the middle and low-level, and gradually implement it in sequence.” In addition, Zeng Guangyu also suggested: "The system requires that the information to be publicized be complete, including not only the personal property or income of officials, but also the family property and income of officials, and whether family members are abroad, whether they have deposits or purchases outside the country. property and other aspects.”