India, China to work closely on black money hunt

A top Chinese anti-corruption official said on Thursday that Beijing was keen to work more closely with India on tracking down overseas black money. The Chinese Communist Party has stepped up their campaign to bring back corrupt officials who have fled overseas.

Both Beijing and New Delhi have similar concerns on banking secrecy in the West posing impediments in tracking overseas black money. Last month, Prime Minister Narendra Modi told the G20 meeting in Turkey that India wanted greater international cooperation to "address the barriers of excessive banking secrecy, and complex legal and regulatory frameworks."

This was echoed on Thursday by Liu Jianchao, minister of the National Bureau of Corruption Prevention and director general at the international department of the CPC's powerful anti-corruption body, the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI).

In a rare meeting with journalists, the official said the CCDI had through its "sky net" initiative aimed at repatriating corrupt officials, already had brought back over 800 people, of whom 150 people held public positions.

In April, Interpol released a red corner notice with China's top 100 corruption suspects. Of them, Liu said 18 had either been brought back to China or surrendered had themselves to the police.

Asked if the CCDI had an estimate of the amount of wealth and assets that had been taken out of the country, Liu told MAIL TODAY that security authorities and the bank had "launched a joint campaign to crack down on underground banking and money laundering", and were still assessing the amount.

(In association with Mail Today Bureau)