China's central bank and the Anti-Money Laundering Ministerial Joint Conference have jointly issued China's first anti-money laundering strategy.
With approval from China's State Council, the China 2008-2012 Anti-Money Laundering Strategy focuses on the terrorism financing network. The strategy states that the general goal of the country's anti-money laundering work is to set up a highly efficient anti-money laundering mechanism with Chinese characteristics by 2012.
The Central Bank says that China's anti-money laundering will mainly do the following: consummate anti-money laundering criminal laws, build national anti-terrorism financing network, improve anti-money laundering supervision, establish non-financial industry anti-money laundering system, strengthen exchanges between departments, train anti-money laundering experts; and participate in international cooperation, and the making of relevant standards. The Central Bank states that any funds transferred overseas that are deemed criminal will be confiscated.
Su Ning, the vice president of the Central Bank, states that non-financial industries have become new channels for money laundering in recent years. Therefore, the country plans to include such non-financial sectors as lottery and payment settlement organizations into the anti-money laundering system. Su disclosed that China had conducted anti-money laundering inspections on 3,317 financial institutions in 2009 and punished 563 finance agencies for violating the relevant rules.
