According to a report published on April 22 in the Hong Kong based Ming Pao Newspaper, during recent years, over four thousand corrupt officials who were suspected of accepting bribes or embezzling public funds have fled from Mainland China with these funds. They took with them over five billion Yuan RMB (The monthly salary of an average urban worker is about 500 Yuan RMB). In Beijing alone, over one hundred and twenty suspects were captured and arrested last year. Seventy percent of them were general managers or Party officials in state-owned enterprises. Five hundred million Yuan RMB was involved.

Ming Pao Newspaper reported that Jiang Jifang, the Director of the Henan Province Tobacco Exclusive Sales Bureau, was accused of embezzlement. Jiang went into exile in the United States in early April. It is said that Jiang took away two hundred million Yuan RMB. Jiang sent back a fax after arriving in the United States, asking for "one year's time off." The Central Investigative Commission has ordered its branch in Henan Province and the related Supervisory Committees to make it a special case for investigation. If Jiang is found guilty, China will put Jiang Jifang on the wanted list through Interpol.

Wanwei Readers' Website reported on April 22 that the China National Foreign Exchange Administration Bureau announced on April 22 that as of the end of 2001, China has accumulated over one hundred and seventy billion one hundred and ten million dollars' in foreign debts, excluding the debts of Hong Kong and Macao.

According to the Industry and Commerce Journal, China has over one hundred and nineteen billion five hundred and thirty million dollars' of midterm and long-term foreign debt. The debt amount increased by six billion six hundred and fifty million dollars since the end of June 2001.