🚨Breaking: CCP Drafts New “Anti-Cross-Border Corruption” Law: A Bid to Seize Overseas Assets?
The CCP now apparently wants not only to “shut the door and beat the dogs,” but also to “go outside and catch the dogs.”
Today, a draft Anti-Cross-Border Corruption Law was submitted for its first review at a meeting of the Standing Committee of the 14th National People’s Congress.
According to official reports, “the draft consists of six chapters and 47 articles. Its main contents include clarifying the principles, scope, and positions of China’s anti-cross-border corruption work; defining the mechanisms and responsibilities for such work; strengthening case handling and international cooperation; specifying corporate obligations for integrity and compliance; and establishing legal liabilities.”
The official report also said the law would “promptly elevate effective practices and experience in cross-border corruption governance, the pursuit of fugitives and recovery of illicit assets, and participation in the formulation of international anti-corruption rules into law, and formulate a specialized anti-cross-border corruption law that both reflects Chinese characteristics and can gain broad recognition from the international community.”
In my view, this is yet another desperate move by a CCP that has become so financially strapped that it is behaving like a cornered dog jumping over a wall. The goal may be to go after people who made money in China in previous years and transferred their wealth overseas — and bring both the people and the money back.
Others have said:
“This is yet another typical catch-all law for transnational repression. It is intended to make people overseas afraid to speak or act freely. The authorities can define almost anyone they want as being involved in ‘cross-border corruption.’”
Clearly, this appears to be part of the same package of measures introduced recently to tighten controls over people leaving China and money flowing out of the country.
Anyone who has ever done business in China could potentially become a target of the CCP’s cross-border enforcement efforts.
Below is the full text of the official announcement:
Draft Anti-Cross-Border Corruption Law Submitted for First Review as China Seeks to Strengthen Its Foreign-Related Anti-Corruption Legal Framework
The draft Anti-Cross-Border Corruption Law was submitted on the 25th for its first review at a meeting of the Standing Committee of the 14th National People’s Congress.
The draft consists of six chapters and 47 articles. Its main contents include clarifying the principles, scope, and positions of China’s anti-cross-border corruption work; defining the mechanisms and responsibilities for anti-cross-border corruption work; strengthening case handling and international cooperation; specifying corporate integrity and compliance obligations; and establishing legal liabilities.
The formulation of an Anti-Cross-Border Corruption Law would establish and improve a national anti-cross-border corruption mechanism under the centralized and unified leadership of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, build the institutional “four beams and eight pillars” of anti-cross-border corruption efforts, promote coordination among supervisory investigations, criminal justice, administrative law enforcement, integrity and compliance, and international cooperation, and advance an integrated effort to ensure that officials “dare not, cannot, and do not want to be corrupt.”
It would establish a specialized foreign-related anti-corruption legal framework integrating punishment, prevention, and countermeasures. This would be of great significance in filling the gap in China’s specialized anti-cross-border corruption legislation, improving China’s foreign-related anti-corruption legal system, and advancing cross-border corruption governance through rule-of-law thinking and legal methods.
The formulation of the Anti-Cross-Border Corruption Law would declare China’s basic positions, concepts, and principles regarding anti-cross-border corruption and specify corresponding countermeasures, blocking measures, and other actions in the field of anti-corruption. This would help safeguard China’s national sovereignty, security, and development interests, build international consensus on anti-corruption, and contribute “Chinese wisdom” and “Chinese solutions” to global anti-corruption governance.
As increasing numbers of enterprises expand overseas and the scale of overseas assets grows rapidly, creating a clean business environment has major practical significance for China’s continued expansion of trade, support for Chinese enterprises participating in international competition, and the steady and sustainable development of the Belt and Road Initiative.
The Anti-Cross-Border Corruption Law would define integrity and compliance obligations for enterprises engaged in cross-border operations, continuously improve integrity and compliance systems, and strengthen the supervisory responsibilities of relevant government departments. This would help guide Chinese enterprises operating abroad to conduct business lawfully, compliantly, and with integrity; make “integrity” a core element of competitiveness; build a new type of government-business relationship that is both close and clean; and foster a fair and equitable international business environment.
The law would also expand the legal measures and tools available for combating cross-border corruption and address major difficulties in detecting cross-border corruption, obtaining evidence, recovering illicit assets, and securing convictions, thereby providing strong legal support for investigating and handling cross-border corruption cases.
According to reports, the drafting of the Anti-Cross-Border Corruption Law primarily follows four principles:
First, upholding political leadership. The legislation will resolutely implement the decisions and directives of the CCP Central Committee, transform the Party’s positions into the will of the state through statutory procedures, and ensure that legislative work is carried out under the centralized and unified leadership of the CCP Central Committee.
Second, highlighting Chinese characteristics. Effective experience and practices in cross-border corruption governance, the pursuit of fugitives and recovery of illicit assets, and participation in the formulation of international anti-corruption rules will promptly be elevated into law, with the goal of creating a specialized anti-cross-border corruption law that both reflects Chinese characteristics and can gain broad recognition from the international community.
Third, maintaining a problem-oriented approach. Targeted provisions will address urgent and prominent problems encountered in anti-cross-border corruption work, improving the practicality and effectiveness of the legislation.
Fourth, adopting a systematic approach. The law will be coordinated with existing laws, regulations, and institutional arrangements, while integrating punishment, prevention, and countermeasures.
8/25/2026
