Graft buster lists 50 fugitives

China's graft buster released an update on Wednesday on the possible whereabouts of the country's 50 most wanted corruption fugitives in other countries and regions and called for public participation in repatriating economic criminals.

The move followed the success of the disclosure of 22 fugitives' whereabouts last year, with six of them having surrendered themselves to justice in the Chinese mainland, according to the Fugitive Repatriation and Asset Recovery Office of the Central Anti-Corruption Coordination Group.

The office said the updated list was released to engage the public in finding fugitives at large, and pledged to protect whistleblowers.

China has achieved "significant gradual success" in the hunt for fugitives since 2012, the office said.

From the beginning of the SkyNet operation in March 2015 to the end of April this year, a total of 4,141 fugitives suspected of economic crimes - including 825 corrupt officials - have returned to face trial from more than 90 countries and regions, it said.

In the same period, Chinese police retrieved nearly 10 billion yuan ($1.6 billion) in illicit assets, it said.

SkyNet is designed to target corruption fugitives and confiscate their ill-gotten assets. The public was asked to report the whereabouts of fugitives to the web address 12388.gov.cn/ztzz/.

Recently, many corrupt Chinese officials and State-owned-enterprise executives have fled to the United States, Canada and New Zealand to evade punishment. China has no bilateral extradition treaties with those countries.

In April 2015, the International Criminal Police Organization issued red notices for the arrest of 100 major Chinese corruption fugitives on the run abroad. To date, 52 of the 100 most-wanted fugitives have returned from more than 16 countries and regions.