The Beijing Municipal Organization Department recently published a new rule that division-level or higher-level officials are not allowed to travel abroad for personal reasons in normal conditions. In special situations, the officials may apply to higher level leaders for approval to travel, following strict procedures. They are required to face a strict examination in order to get approval for going abroad. The new rule also requires officials to return their passports to the human resource department to keep upon returning from other countries.

Meanwhile, the Beijing Communist Party’s Municipal Organization Department has strengthened the supervision system that monitors officials suspected of planning to flee. Once actions indicating an official may flee are detected, officials in the organization must report level by level up to the Central Organization Department within 48 hours.

The flight of corrupt officials has become a major issue in recent years, with the Supreme People’s Procuratorate reporting that 762 officials were captured in flight in 2013, and goods and cash worth over 10 billion yuan ($US1.6 billion) were recovered. 

The overseas Chinese-language news website Boxun, quoting officials at the Civil Aviation Administration, said that in 2012 over 350 officials who attempted to flee were captured at the Beijing airport customs and over 300 billion yuan (US$4.9 billion) were recovered from them.