Chinese top legislator Wu Bangguo on
Friday called on procurators-general in Asian and European
countries to strengthen anti-corruption measures by improving
transnational cooperation.
Wu made the remarks on the Second World Anti-Corruption Day when
addressing the opening ceremony of a three-day international
meeting of procurators-general from 43 countries and four
international organizations, held in the city of Shenzhen in south
China's Guangdong Province.
The conference, aimed at fighting transnational crime, is the
first of its kind under the Asian European Meetings mechanism.
The Standing Committee of China's 10th National People's
Congress, the country's top legislature, gave its approval for
ratification of the United Nations Convention against Corruption
about a month ago, a testimony of the country's strong
determination to combat corruption-related crimes. China now has
initiated the process of enacting necessary enabling legislation to
join the convention.
A total of 33 countries have ratified the convention so far.
Jia
Chunwang, prosecutor-general of the Supreme People's
Procuratorate of China, said he would like to see more countries
join and ratify the convention, to help in "combating, preventing
and controlling transnational corruption crimes sooner and
better."
According to Jia, a theme discussion entitled "enhance
international cooperation to jointly combat corruption" will be
held on Saturday.
As the United Nations Convention against Corruption will
formally come into force next week, Jia made the pledge in front of
some 300 representatives that China would accelerate the
development of its legislative and institutional anti-corruption
framework, including its actual implementation.
The major obstacles in cracking transnational corruption crimes
lie in the lack of efficient financial management and legislation,
said Zhang Xuejun, chief of the Guangdong Provincial People's
Procuratorate.
Being one of the first regions that implemented the reform and
opening-up policy, Guangdong Province is at the frontier of the
battle against corruption.
Zhang called for the establishment of an early warning system in
foreign currency management to prevent high-ranking officials from
fleeing the country with large amounts of money.
China's lawmakers are now working on the Law against Money
Laundering, which will help combat transnational corruption
crime.
Though the Chinese government has signed extradition treaties
with 23 countries, and 71 criminal and civil judiciary assistance
treaties with 47 countries, Zhang said, there are no treaties with
the Untied States and Canada, the destination for the majority of
the criminals.
Throughout last year, the procuratorial organs at all levels in
China placed on file for investigation 43,757 state functionaries,
among whom 11 were at ministerial levels.
(China Daily December 10, 2005)