Senior woman official wanted on China's Sky Net fugitives list is in US custody
Fugitive may be sent back to China due to visa violation but wider extradition treaty is unlikely
Beijing has claimed another trophy in its hunt for fugitive officials abroad following the detention of a corruption suspect in the US, but observers say repatriating officials hiding in the US to China remains an uphill task.
The chance for the two countries to start negotiations on extradition treaties, which tops Beijing wish list, is also slim.
Yang Xiuzhu, a senior official accused of embezzling more than 250 million yuan (HK$316 million) when she oversaw construction projects in Zhejiang, was in US custody pending her removal to China, US immigration said on Thursday.
China's top anti-graft agency told China Daily that Yang was detained last year after entering the US from Canada using a fake Dutch passport.
She had violated the terms of the US Visa Waiver Programme that allows some citizens from certain countries to temporarily stay in the United States, and was being held at a detention facility in Hudson County, New Jersey, a US immigration agency spokesman said.
The name of the 68-year-old appears at the top of a list of 100 wanted fugitives released by Interpol's China office in April as a part of Operation Sky Net.