'Extrajudicial extradition': MPs alarmed about Chinese police escorting Australian resident to China for trial
www.abc.net.au
Chinese police hunting international corruption targets were allowed into Australia by the federal police and subsequently escorted a woman back to China for trial, in a major breach of Chinese-Australian police protocols.

Chinese police hunting international corruption targets were allowed into Australia by the federal police and subsequently escorted a woman back to China for trial, in a major breach of Chinese-Australian police protocols.

The revelations, contained in Monday night’s Four Corners program about a former Chinese spy, prompted a sharp rebuke from federal politicians who are concerned the act may have undermined Australia’s national security.

The Chinese police were permitted to enter Australia in 2019 to talk with a 59-year-old Chinese-born Australian resident.

The woman was targeted under a Chinese Communist Party (CCP) anti-corruption drive called Operation Fox Hunt, which relies on police from the Ministry of Public Security (MPS) to make arrests.

Her case is one of 283 cases documented by an international NGO, Safeguard Defenders, in its recent report, Chasing Fox Hunt.

While Fox Hunt is described by the CCP as targeting “economic criminals”, human rights groups have said it is also used to silence dissidents and abduct people around the world.

  • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.worldEnglish
    3415·
    6 months ago

    Traditionally, countries will have extradition agreements that facilitate arrest of criminals in flight.

    Thanks to break down in relations between China and Western states, it has become increasingly common for Chinese embezzlers and con-artists to flee abroad with cash assets in hopes of evading arrest.

    Of course, this works both ways with Australian felony suspects hiding in China to the same effect.

    In 2017, the Turnbull government abruptly withdrew from parliament a proposed Chinese extradition treaty following significant backbench discontent.

    Since then, the Australian government has resorted to various agreements with MPS and other Chinese security agencies as a means of cooperating with China on criminal matters.

    So this becomes an end run for both countries to seek “voluntary” extradition, primarily by threatening potential accomplices and family property in the original country.

    And it exists for good reason. You generally don’t want your country to become a haven for fraudsters because they’ll keep committing fraud in their new country.

    Yvette Wang, accused of being an accomplice of exiled and indicted Chinese billionaire Guo Wengui, pleaded guilty in New York last week to defrauding many investors out of over $1 billion in “a complex scheme,” prosecutors said.