BEIJING, Aug 19 (AFP) - About 4,000 corrupt Chinese officials have fled overseas in the past two decades taking a staggering 50 billion dollars with them, official media reported Thursday.
Much of the money has been moved abroad through offshore financing centers, prompting Premier Wen Jiabao to order finance regulators to develop ways to deal with the problem, the Beijing's Evening Legal News said.
Experts said corrupt officials and some private firms were using companies registered in offshore finance centers such as the British Virgin Islands and the Bahamas to illegally transfer funds.
A joint task force is being set up by the central bank, the State Administration of Foreign Exchange, the China Banking Regulatory Commission and the China Securities Regulatory Commission to deal with the issue.
China is beset by corruption nationwide and it is consistently cited as one of the top causes of public discontent with the current political system.
While the central government has vowed to clamp down hard on the practices, a steady stream of graft reports in the official media suggests the problem remains serious.
In the latest attempt to combat the problem, China has set up public bank accounts so that corrupt officials can voluntarily return bribes they have pocketed in return for lighter punishment.
Accounts have so far been set up in six provinces and 20 cities, Xinhua news agency said Thursday, without naming the places or giving details about how successful the scheme has been.
The move follows a meeting of 70 experts who looked at ways to prevent graft through laws and amendments of current systems and regulations, said Wang Minggao, head of the research group that made the recommendation.
He said the group also proposed regulations to require government officials to register family possessions and use real names at banks to prevent money laundering.
The suggestions are all aimed at preventing corruption systematically rather than by the sporadic punishment of individuals, said Wang.
The Communist Party, meanwhile, has decided to put together a list of the family members of Party leaders and state-owned company managers who live overseas.
The register is designed to keep track of which officials have a higher likelihood of fleeing abroad once they have ensured their family was safely overseas, the Guangming Daily said.
The Communist Party central disciplinary inspection commission said it will start registration of family in selected companies and institutions from July.
Corrupt officials fleeing abroad to avoid punishment range from bank directors to corporate chairmen as well as officials from municipal and provincial governments, said the Mirror, a newly-launched legal daily.
The destinations include the United States, New Zealand, Australia and Southeast Asian countries, said the newspaper.