Trace the Money, Seize the Fugitives”: China’s Other Anticorruption Battle

Abstract

Corrupt officials fleeing abroad with ill-gotten proceeds constitute a special challenge for the Chinese government. International cooperation to seize these fugitives often encounters roadblocks due to countries’ legal-political differences. By observing China’s burgeoning extraterritorial anti-corruption regime, this article proposes that an anti-money laundering (AML) mindset is being embraced to ‘seize the fugitives’ by ‘tracing the money’. This approach has three advantages: 1) de-complication by standardizing states’ practices and bypassing complexities inherent in orthodox means, 2) de-politicization by circumventing sensitive political concerns through pursuing fugitives and corrupt proceeds separately, and 3) leveling the playing field by rebalancing power between requested and requesting states. In-depth case studies combined with elite interviews reveal that this AML-oriented tactic has facilitated China’s capture of fugitives on foreign soils.