China launches 'Sky Net 2019' to capture fugitive officials

China has launched this year's campaign to capture corrupt officials who have fled abroad.

The campaign, codenamed "Sky Net 2019," will capture more fugitive suspects and prevent more corrupt officials from fleeing, according to a meeting held on Monday by the office of pursuing fugitives and stolen assets in foreign countries, under the central anti-graft coordination group.

The campaign will be carried out by several organs, in which the National Supervisory Commission (NSC) will be in charge of hunting down officials who are suspected of duty-related crimes, the Supreme People's Court pursuing illicit assets and the Ministry of Public Security (MPS) carrying out the "Fox Hunt" operation that targets economic crime suspects who have fled overseas.

The People's Bank of China and the MPS will prevent and crack down on the transfer of stolen money, and the Organization Department of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and the MPS will deal with the illegal acquisition of travel documents.

More efforts should be made to deepen judicial assistance and international law enforcement cooperation to crack the cases and improve the system that prevents more suspects from fleeing, said Li Shulei, deputy secretary of the CPC Central Commission for Discipline Inspection and vice head of the NSC.

China launched the first Sky Net operation in April 2015.