The deputy commissioner of the Chinese General Administration of Customs, Sun Yibiao, led a delegation to New Zealand Feb. 10, where he was briefed on a detector-dog training program that the country is helping China develop, the state-run news agency Xinhua reported.Jinping Yu, a sophomore from China majoring in accounting said, “I only heard about training dogs in detecting drugs, this is first time to know cash-detecting dogs.”Deputy Commissioner Sun also visited the New Zealand detector-dog base. Even though China has already taken advantage of dogs to chase contraband wildlife, drugs and explosives, this will be the first cash-detecting dog program of China.With the far-reaching anti-corruption campaign by President Xi Jinping entering its third year, it has become more and more important for the Chinese authorities to enhance surveillance capabilities. Some officials suspected of corruption who tried to flee with their ill-gotten gains have been found and nabbed at the border, said South China Morning Post. Canada New also reported that, between April 2011 and early June 2012, nearly $13 million in undeclared cash has been seized from Chinese by Canadian border officials at the Toronto and Vancouver airports. Jiayuan Wang, a sophomore from China majoring in accounting shared his opinion: “Cash-sniffing dogs is just a measure, it cannot radically stopped the political corruption and some officials will still abscond with their ill-gotten gains. For those people, the most common way to transfer property is using bank account and check, only a few using cash.”Since 2012, New Zealand has trained detector dogs. Before entering service, both the dogs and their handlers must undergo an intensive training over a three-month period. The New Zealand customs authorities reported that more than $1.9 million in “undeclared or concealed cash” had been sniffed out by the dogs that were dual-trained in drug and cash-detecting.“Trainers from New Zealand customs will provide assistance to China when they begin training their dogs,” the New Zealand customs minister, Nicky Wagner, said in a government statement on Feb. 10.Bethany James, a freshman from New Zealand said this is her first time hearing this news. “I think it is very smart, but I don’t think it’s very necessary to spend time and money on this program.”Uploaded March 2, 2015
Writer: Siyang Chen
