Foreign courts approved the extraditions to China of 53 suspects charged with economic crimes last year and the return of alleged smuggler Lai Changxing from Canada is imminent, the Ministry of Public Security said Tuesday.

"Any criminal suspects fleeing to abroad and evading punishment will be brought to justice," said Wu Heping, spokesman for the ministry. "It's just a matter of time."

Wu declined to answer questions on Lai's anticipated deportation, but he promised to "inform the media on related developments soon."

Lai is accused of leading a ring which had conducted, in collaboration with corrupt officials in Xiamen City, the biggest smuggling operation uncovered in China since 1949. The case involved goods worth 10 billion US dollars.

Lai fled to Canada with his family in 1999, where he has since been trying to gain refugee status.

Chinese police had strengthened cooperation with foreign counterparts to prevent criminal suspects fleeing abroad, and the efforts "have paid off," said Gao Feng, deputy director of the ministry's Economic Crime Investigation Department, on Tuesday.

"About 800 suspects wanted in connection with economic crimes are residing in foreign countries," said Gao. "In the last two years more than 320 have been repatriated, in connection with cases involving nearly 70 billion yuan (875 million US dollars) worth of property and funds."

The United States had also extradited a Chinese criminal suspect as a result of judicial cooperation.

Yu Zhendong, former head of a Bank of China branch in the city of Kaiping, fled to the US before being tried in connection with 82.5 million US dollars that disappeared from the bank. Yu was returned to China in 2004 after the government agreed he would not face execution. Earlier this year, a court in the southern province of Guangdong sentenced Yu to 12 years in prison for embezzlement.

Chinese police are also negotiating with their Dutch counterparts for the return of Yang Xiuzhu, a former official in East China's Zhejiang Province, who has been charged with taking bribes.
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(Xinhua News Agency May 23, 2006)