Canada is set to sign a deal with China to return assets seized from those suspected of economic crimes, the state-run China Daily newspaper reported yesterday, as Beijing works to track down allegedly corrupt officials who have fled overseas.
The world’s second-largest economy has vowed to instigate a “fox hunt” for corrupt officials and business executives — and their assets — beyond its borders.
However, Western nations have balked at signing extradition deals with China, partly out of concern about the integrity of its judicial system and its treatment of prisoners.
The pact is expected to cover “the return of property related to people who would have fled to Canada and would have been involved in corrupt activities,” Canadian Ambassador to China Guy Saint-Jacques told the China Daily in an interview.
China has extradition pacts with 39 countries, but not the US or Canada, which are among the two most popular destinations for suspected economic fugitives, Chinese officials say.
Rights groups allege that torture is widely used by Chinese authorities and the death penalty is common in corruption cases.
The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs has said it is considering suing people suspected of financial crimes who have fled abroad.
Lai Changxing (賴昌星), once China’s most-wanted fugitive, fled to Canada with his family in 1999, seeking refugee status after he became the object of what he called politically motivated accusations of having run a multibillion dollar smuggling operation.
After a Canadian court rejected his refugee bid, dismissing concerns that he could be tortured or executed if sent home, Lai was deported in 2011. He was jailed for life the following year.
China this month asked the US to help it track down more than 100 people suspected of corruption. At least 428 Chinese suspects had been captured abroad by the end of October under the “fox hunt” campaign, Chinese media outlets reported.
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, funeral home officials said. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died on April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg said. The cause of death was not detailed. “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The
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A prominent Christian leader has allegedly been stabbed at the altar during a Mass yesterday in southwest Sydney. Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel was saying Mass at Christ The Good Shepherd Church in Wakeley just after 7pm when a man approached him at the altar and allegedly stabbed toward his head multiple times. A live stream of the Mass shows the congregation swarm forward toward Emmanuel before it was cut off. The church leader gained prominence during the COVID-19 pandemic, amassing a large online following, Officers attached to Fairfield City police area command attended a location on Welcome Street, Wakeley following reports a number