Prosecutors to intensify hunt for fugitive officials

Prosecuting departments will step up their hunt for corrupt officials who have fled abroad and transferred lots of assets, the Supreme People's Prosecutorate announced on Friday.

Anti-graft crackdown

Figures provided by the SPP show that, from January through June, national prosecuting departments captured 320 fugitives at home and abroad.

Most of those arrested were corrupt officials, wanted on suspicions of corruption and accepting bribes, said Xu Jinhui, director of the SPP's anti-corruption and bribery department.

"We will cooperate more closely with judicial organs in relevant countries to expand channels and measures to seek those who have escaped overseas, while starting procedures to confiscate assets they have transferred," he said.

According to the SPP, national prosecutors investigated 6,343 governmental officers on corruption and bribery allegations in the first half of 2014, an increase of 14 percent from the same period of the previous year.

Of those, seven were ministerial-level officials and 1,676 were above county-level, the SPP said.