Yang Xiuzhu, top on the list of China’s suspected corrupt officials has returned to China after 13 years of hiding in the United States.
Her surrender marks a major success for the ruling Communist Party’s overseas hunt for fugitive officials, Reuters reports.
Recall that in April 2015, China published a list of 100 of its most wanted suspected corrupt officials many living in the U.S., Canada and Australia.
Yang was ranked number one on the list and is the 37th fugitive to return so far, the commission said.
Chinese officials “introduced relevant policies to Yang Xiuzhu, advising her to abandon her resistance and give herself up, and get lenient treatment in accordance with the law”, it added in a separate statement.
Her brother, regional official Yang Jinjun, also wanted for corruption, was sent back to China in September 2015, the first time Beijing succeeded in bringing back a suspect from the United States.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said her return was an important result for Sino-U.S. anti-corruption cooperation.
The international community was increasingly on the same page when it came to having zero tolerance towards corruption, Geng told a daily news briefing.
Yang fled China in April 2003 after authorities began investigating her alleged involvement in criminal activities.
She sought political asylum in France, the Netherlands and then the United States.
The commission said Yang had “taken the initiative to withdraw an application for asylum and made the decision to return to the country and give herself up”.
Chinese state television showed live footage of Yang, dressed in a gray padded jacket and dark trousers, being led off an American Airlines plane and going through immigration, escorted by two guards.
Reuters
