PRC Promotes Negotiation of Extradition Treaties

The People’s Republic of China has started a campaign to persuade countries, especially developed countries, to conclude bilateral extradition treaties so that it can more easily bring fugitives to justice. A breakthrough occurred recently when France concluded an extradition treaty with the PRC in March 2007. France, Spain, and Portugal are the only developed nations to have taken this step. Other developed countries have deferred negotiating extradition treaties with the PRC because of human rights concerns, especially regarding the criminal justice system and the use of the death penalty. The harshness of criminal penalties in the PRC is quite disproportionate to those in most developed countries ... [more]