The repatriation treaty between China and Spain in which China promised for
the first time to exempt from the death penalty criminal suspects who had fled
to Spain will not be standard in future treaties with other countries, said a
Foreign Ministry official on Friday.
The treaty with Spain, signed in November last year, was ratified by the
Standing Committee of the National People's Congress at the end of last month.
Legislators believed that the ratification is a significant step for China in
fighting corrupt officials fleeing abroad.
Such officials usually take a huge amount of bribery money and flee to
Western countries. The treaty with Spain is the first of its kind between China
and a Western country.
"When we negotiate on repatriation treaties with other countries in the
future, we will not copy the model of Spain," said Xu Hong, a councillor with
the department of treaties and law under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
China will hold consultations with individual countries in accordance with
their specific conditions and legal systems, said Xu.
"Under the precondition of respecting each other's legal system, China and
other countries are able to reach agreement in conformity with each other's
interests," he noted.
Since signing the repatriation treaty with Spain last November, China has
stepped up talks with some Western countries on repatriation treaties, according
to Xu. He declined to name these countries.
China's ratification of the repatriation treaty with Spain has caused
controversy amid fears that it would encourage more corrupt officials to flee
abroad to avoid the death penalty.
Besides Spain, China has so far signed similar treaties with 24 other
countries, but none of them Western.
They include Russia, the Republic of Korea, South Africa and Brazil.
The implementation of the death penalty has prevented many Western countries
from handing over suspects to China.
China has agreed before in individual cases not to execute returned
criminals, said Xu, noting that the treaty with Spain is the first time such a
promise has been formalized in a treaty.
