China city seizes officials' passports after defection

Shanghai: A Chinese city has confiscated the passports of Communist Party officials after a bureaucrat appeared to have defected while on a trip to Paris.

Yang Xianghong, the party secretary of a district of Wenzhou, one of the country's most vibrant cities, left his tour group after only two days. He is still thought to be in France, two weeks after the rest of the party returned.

Yang, 52, was the leader of a 'field inspection' trip to research French culture and society. He apparently excused himself to visit his daughter, who lives in Paris. State media said Yang claimed that his bad back was preventing him from travelling, but it is rumoured that he has submitted his resignation to the Wenzhou government.

A doctor has been dispatched to persuade Yang to return, although one official suggested the odds of a return were 'zero'.

There are suggestions that Yang has decided to stay in the West to avoid a possible investigation into fraud allegations. Yang was questioned by investigators from the region's disciplinary committee shortly before his trip.

Clampdown

Following his disappearance, Wenzhou has clamped down on travel. "All officials are required to hand their passports to the city government and need to specially apply for any overseas activities," an official told Oriental Outlook, part of the state news agency, Xinhua.

Yang Xiuzhu, the former deputy mayor of Wenzhou, fled abroad in April 2003 after allegedly taking more than £16 million in bribes to authorise construction work. She was arrested in the Netherlands in 2005, but China has yet to sign an extradition treaty.

Figures from the Public Security Bureau in 2006 showed that more than 800 people have fled China with around £5.5 billion in property and cash.