China's President Xi Jinping (L) And Australia's Prime Minister Tony Abbott
China's President Xi Jinping (L) listens as Australia's Prime Minister Tony Abbott speaks after a signing ceremony for a free trade deal at Parliament House in Canberra November 17, 2014. China and Australia on Monday signed a declaration of intent on a landmark free trade deal more than a decade in the making, opening up markets worth billions to Australia and loosening restrictions on Chinese investment. Xi is on a three-day official visit to Australia following the G20 leaders summit which was held in Brisbane over the weekend. Reuters/Stringer

New Zealand's Prime Minister John Key has disclosed that it is under pressure from China to hand over many "corrupt" Chinese Communist cadres who fled China and took shelter in New Zealand. During the recent visit of president Xi Jinping, the prospect of starting an extradition treaty was raised. The PM said China is keen to progress an extradition treaty as it believes many of its corrupt officials, their friends, relatives and their money are hiding in New Zealand.

Fox Hunt

The Chinese president is now running "Operation Fox Hunt" targeting corrupt officials who ripped off the Communist regime and fled the state. These economic fugitives, according to China, caused heavy losses to the state amounting to $1.3 trillion and have been using New Zealand as a foxhole, reported 3 News.

Already many cases of fugitive Chinese based in New Zealand have hogged media attention. One example is that Cao Jianliao, the former Mayor of Guangzhou, who was arrested for stashing away millions. The Chinese government believes that his wife, mistress, a child and one associate are in New Zealand, and one of them is a Kiwi citizen. Another case is about Bill Liu, the kingpin of Shane Jones citizenship scandal. He has $40 million in frozen assets and is facing investigation for laundering millions obtained from shady transactions in China.

But, New Zealand faces a dilemma in entertaining the Chinese request because there is no formal extradition treaty with China. Without a treaty, it will be hard for China to get them back. "We don't have an extradition treaty with China, and one of the reasons is China has death penalty," says Mr Key. But China is flexible now. The PM noted that it has been signing many extradition treaties by excluding the death penalty and torture of those being returned. It was a hint of conditional treaty can work in New Zealand for extraditing wanted people. China is also ready to offer tempting deals to countries, which are supportive of government's fox hunt. It is ready to offer a cut from the money it retrieves from the fugitives.

Activists' Concern

Meanwhile, New Zealand's move to concede the demand of China for extradition has been opposed by many rights organisations. Green Party MP Catherine Delahunty accused the government of "putting trade before human rights by flirting with this." There is such a record of human rights abuses in China that we must be concerned about, the MP said. Once there is an agreement, it would be pretty hard to control what happened to the people, reported Stuff.Co. Nz. Amnesty International in New Zealand executive director Grant Bayldon also voiced concern over a pact to hand over people to China. He said it was difficult to secure a fair trial in China. Also the prison conditions are inhuman and custodial torture is rampant.