China to launch new drive to nab corrupt fugitive officials

China will launch a campaign codenamed "Sky Net" in a bid to capture corrupt officials who have fled abroad, the country's anti-graft authority said Thursday.

It will be another major campaign to nab fugitive suspects of economic offences following the "Fox Hunt" campaign last year, Xinhua news agency reported.

Beginning April, involved departments will make joint efforts to capture a group of corrupt officials, clean up illegal certificates, bust underground banks, recover assets involved in criminal cases and persuade fugitive suspects to return home, according to a meeting of the central authority's anti-graft coordination group.

"Sky Net" will involve several government departments, including the Organisational Department of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, the Supreme People's Procuratorate (SPP), the ministry of public security, and the People's Bank of China (PBOC), or the central bank.