A former head of a Chinese State-owned enterprise, who fled to Japan three years ago after coming under suspicion of embezzling public funds, was extradited to China on Thursday, the anti-corruption bureau of the Supreme People's Procuratorate said.

It is the first time Japan has handed a Chinese national suspected of corruption back to China. In 1990, a Chinese man was extradited to China after hijacking a Chinese passenger flight and forcing it to land at Japan's Fukuoka Airport.

Yuan Tongshun, former general manager of a State-owned enterprise in Dalian, a coastal city in northeast China's Liaoning Province, is suspected of embezzling a large amount of public money from September 2003 to March 2004. The bureau did not reveal the sum of the money or the name of the company.

Yuan fled to Japan to seek refuge with his wife, who gained Japanese citizenship on March 27, 2004.

After learning of Yuan's escape, the Supreme People's Procuratorate issued a warrant for his arrest through the International Criminal Police Organization.

In response to a request by the Chinese government for Yuan's handover, Japanese prosecutors detained him in March and sought a decision from the high court over the extradition.

China and Japan have yet to sign a treaty on extradition but, according to Japanese media reports, the two countries are ready to start negotiations.

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