In recent years, China's government has begun to escalate its efforts to hold corrupt government officials accountable. In what China's Central Commission for Discipline Inspection calls a "Fox Hunt", 762 people were extradited to China on corruption charges in the last year. Almost 1 billion dollars worth of stolen Yuan (Chinese unit of currency) were confiscated. The campaign has thus been successful to a degree. However, China has had major difficulties extraditing officials from certain countries including the US, the Netherlands, Canada, and Australia. In the US alone, more than 150 "economic fugitives" avoid accountability to Chinese courts.
China belongs to an intergovernmental organization (IGO) called INTERPOL, which works to facilitate cooperation among the world's police forces. This IGO is useful for purposes such as extradition of criminals. It currently has 190 member countries, including the US. However, two countries being members of INTERPOL does not guarantee extradition from one to another. Extradition treaties are necessary to ensure that, and China does not have any with the above four western countries. These countries are also unlikely to cooperate with China's extradition efforts due to their distrust in China's justice system. Concerns over torture and capital punishment are the main reasons for this reluctance.
Discussion Questions:
1. Are these western countries justified in intervening this way? Is letting criminals go unpunished worse than subjecting them to a system of justice that western countries see as inhumane?
2. Could this protection of corrupt officials encourage further government corruption in China?
Sources:
Telegraph
Reuters
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2 comments:
I think that the four above countries are correct in their position to not hand over the corrupt officials.
These officials have committed nonviolent crimes and do not deserve to go through brutal interrogations. These countries have an ethical duty where possible to prevent the torture of a human being.
Oponents may say that these officials may be brought to justice, but the "justice" that is imposed upon these officials is often worse that the original crime. The Chinese procedure of Shuanggui, where corrupt officials are asked to confess wrongdoing, sounds like something out of 1984. Many officials have died under mysterious circumstances, often suffering from "accidents" during questioning. http://usa.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2013-04/09/content_16387746.htm?_ga=1.153639800.1311167626.1409253699
Even though the system of justice that these criminals would be subjected to is deemed cruel and inhumane, these criminals should not go completely unpunished. Though punishments should not be death and mistreatment, these officials should hold some accountability for their actions. Maybe they should be tried on U.S. or Canadian, or Australian territory. These officials knew, or should have realized, what they were getting into, and if actions of robbing and stealing from the public go unpunished, who knows what kind of behavior will result indirectly from knowledge of a "safe hideaway from the law."
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