From the Financial Times (link):
The US on Wednesday expressed concern that ever more sophisticated drug-trafficking cartels were using China’s inadequately controlled financial system to launder their proceeds, possibly even getting tax breaks in the process.
Releasing its annual report on drug-trafficking worldwide, the State Department’s bureau for international narcotics and law enforcement affairs pointed to significant progress in Latin America in 2005, as well as positive US efforts to reduce drug abuse domestically that accounts for some 20,000 deaths a year.
…China was developing into a big concern, the report said. “A more sophisticated and globally connected financial system in one of the world’s fastest growing economies will offer significantly more opportunities for money laundering activities.” It noted a draft “Anti-Money Laundering Law” was submitted to China’s National People’s Congress last year and was expected to be passed in 2006. A Financial Intelligence Unit was set up in 2004.
But in spite of these efforts, the report said “institutional obstacles and rivalries between financial and law enforcement authorities continue to hamper Chinese anti-money laundering work and other financial law enforcement”.
See also “China to step up anti-money laundering” from Xinhua.
