Guangdong officials are taking the money and running like never before.
According to still incomplete statistics from the Guangdong People's Procuratorate, government and party cadres who are suspects in large-scale corruption cases have absconded with public funds worth more than two billion yuan (HK$1.88 billion).
The figures were reported in yesterday's Guangzhou Daily, which quoted the deputy head of the Guangdong People's Procuratorate's Anti-Corruption Bureau, Liu Hengjun.
Mr Liu issued a warning to officials still on the run, noting that the scale of the sweep for missing suspects was unprecedented. 'If you think you can just profiteer and run, think again. Voluntarily surrendering in return for more lenient treatment is the only way out,' he said.
According to the corruption statistics cited yesterday, Guangdong officials appear to account for a disproportionate amount of the total funds stolen by missing mainland government suspects.
On January 18, the Supreme People's Procuratorate and the Ministry of Public Security held a work meeting in Beijing to co-ordinate the pursuit and capture of fugitive officials. At that meeting it was reported that nationwide, about 4,000 officials had disappeared with more than five billion yuan.