China to ratify UN pact against corruption

BEIJING—The Chinese government on Saturday tabled the international document with its legislature, the National People’s Congress (NPC) Standing Committee, for ratification in less than two years after subscripting to the United Nations Convention against Corruption. The convention “is conducive to the repatriation of corrupt criminals fled abroad and the recovery of Chinese assets illegally transferred to foreign lands,” Premier Wen Jiabao said in a bill submitted to the legislature.
China has been increasingly plagued by government officials and executives of state-owned companies who abscond with a large sum of public money and flee overseas to escape from prosecution and punishment. Chinese police authorities said that by the end of last year, more than 500 Chinese suspects had committed economic crimes, most of whom were corrupt officials, were at large in foreign countries, who carried with them a total of 70 billion yuan (8.4 billion US dollars) of illegal funds. Only a fraction of them have been extradited back to China. The UN anti-corruption convention, adopted by the UN General Assembly in October 31, 2003, has made stipulations on the prevention, criminalization, international cooperation, assets recovery and implementation mechanism in the fight against transnational crimes of corruption. The convention is consistent with China’s anti-corruption strategy of putting equal emphasis on punishment and prevention of such a crime and has no contradictions with Chinese domestic laws in this regard, said Wu Dawei, vice-minister of foreign affairs, at Saturday’s legislative hearing.
“Most importantly, it will provides a strong international legal basis for China to solve the current difficulties in investigating, extraditing criminal suspects of corruption and recovering Chinese assets in foreign countries,” Wu told legislators. The vice-minister also said China has played a “constructive role” in the formulation of this legal document to make it reflect Chinese stance “to the maximum extent”.
China has attached great importance to international cooperation in the fight against corruption. Chinese prosecutors have captured a total of about 70 criminal suspects of corruption from abroad through legal assistance channels with foreign countries since 1998.
The successful extradition from the United States of a local branch head of the Bank of China in Guangdong Province in 2004 was lauded as the most powerful deterrence for Chinese corrupt officials, since the country used to be taken as the safest destination to escape from prosecution. Yu Zhendong, the banker, misappropriated 483 million US dollars before fleeing to the United States. Chinese police has also seized more than 230 Chinese criminal suspects from more than 30 countries and regions during the period of 1993 to January this year with the help of Interpol, the international police body.
Wu Dawei, vice-minister of foreign affairs, said that China is busy formulating the law on the prevention and punishment of money laundry and revising its criminal law, in an effort to better adapt Chinese legal system to the UN anti-corruption convention upon its ratification.
China signed the document in December in 2003. By September 15,30 countries have ratified the convention, which will goes into effect on December 14 this year.
The convention has been one of the most noticeable efforts of the United Nations in tackling a growing trend of internationalization of corruption.
Chinese police authorities said that by the end of last year, more than 500 Chinese suspects had committed economic crimes, most of whom were corrupt officials, were at large in foreign countries, who carried with them a total of 70 billion yuan (8.4 billion US dollars) of illegal funds. Only a fraction of them have been extradited back to China.
The UN anti-corruption convention, adopted by the UN General Assembly in October 31, 2003, has made stipulations on the prevention, criminalization, international cooperation, assets recovery and implementation mechanism in the fight against transnational crimes of corruption.
Kofi Annan, United Nations Secretary-General, said upon the adoption of the convention that “Corruption hurts the poor disproportionately by diverting funds intended for development, undermining a government’s ability to provide basic services, feeding inequality and injustice, and discouraging foreign investment and aid”.

—The Daily Mail-China Daily news exchange item

Beijing steps up bird flu surveillance

BEIJING—Beijing has stepped up its efforts to combat bird flu by sending inspectors to farms, households and migratory bird sanctuaries to enforce disease prevention controls. A vendor passes a duck she has just butchered to her daughter at her poultry stall in Beijing. China's capital has stepped up its efforts to combat bird flu by sending inspectors to farms, households and migratory bird sanctuaries to enforce disease prevention controls.
The stepped-up veterinary checks came after China reported its first outbreak of bird flu in more than two months, on a farm in its northern Inner Mongolia region, where 2,600 birds died, with 91,000 others culled. Chinese leaders have warned the country faces a "grave" threat from avian influenza, as both Asia and Europe fight to contain the deadly virus.
Officials in Beijing have begun checking chickens, ducks, geese and even carrier pigeons being raised as pets in the city to make sure they are properly vaccinated or isolated, the Beijing Youth Daily reported. So far, some 98 percent of the poultry raised on Beijing's farms have been vaccinated, and officials hope to increase the rate to 100 percent in the coming days, the report quoted city agricultural officials saying.
Poultry markets, slaughterhouses and zoos will also be monitored, and special attention will be paid to farms near sanctuaries for migratory birds, which are believed to have brought bird flu to several countries. In Beijing, security was to be stepped up at airports, bus and train stations and at border crossings to prevent birds from infected areas reaching the capital, said the report.
City officials were also taking steps to ensure there is an adequate stockpile of vaccines and disinfectants. President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao have issued a directive for an all-out effort to prevent the spread of the virus, amidst fears of a global pandemic after Russia, Romania and Turkey all confirmed new outbreaks. World Health Organization officials in Beijing said although China had strong political determination to tackle the problem, and had stepped up monitoring efforts, more needed to be done at the local level. Disease prevention officials in Beijing and other Chinese cities face a tough task, as it is common for families to raise poultry for their own consumption.
Residents of Beijing, especially in the older "hutong" alley neighborhoods, often keep their small flocks in cages in their yards, balconies or just outside their front door. Chickens and ducks were still on sale at small sidewalk markets in the capital.
Southern China's Guangdong province said it would set up a surveillance system to detect animal diseases quickly and prevent the spread to humans, the Beijing Youth Daily said in a separate report. Guangdong was the location for the first outbreak of the pneumonia-like Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome ( SARS) in November 2002, which triggered a global health crisis, causing nearly 800 deaths worldwide.—Agencies