One of China's most wanted fugitives, who has eluded the government since 2003, has been caught thanks to the joint efforts of Chinese and US authorities.

Bloomberg News reported that Yang Xiuzhu, a former Chinese official believed to have embezzled more than $40 million, has been held in custody at New Jersey's Hudson County correctional facility since June 2014. Yang is also on Interpol's most wanted list.

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Yang was apprehended after trying to enter the US with a fake Dutch passport, according to China's Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI). The US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) have revealed that their database shows that Yang used her name and birth year on the fake passport. 

The report added that when the government started scrutinizing her family's assets, Yang fled to the US in 2003 with her granddaughter. Later in 2005, Interpol captured her in Netherlands after the country refused to provide her political asylum, but somehow escaped before she was expatriated to China.

This is the latest confirmation of her whereabouts after the arrest in Netherlands.

ICE Spokesman Lou Martinez said in a statement that Yang, a "foreign law enforcement fugitive," will be turned over to Chinese officials for violating of the Visa-Waiver Program, which permits people from certain countries a non-visa entry. However, China is not part of the program, which leads authorities to believe that Yang may have entered from another country. The Chinese government also believe that she may have entered Singapore and the US under a different name.

CCDI's Director for International Cooperation Fu Kui said this arrest is an example of progress made possible because of cooperation between both countries. "There is room for greater cooperation," he added.

Experts say Yang's arrest will boost China's anti-corruption campaign, codenamed Operation Sky Net. Sky Net is a list of 100 Chinese officials and individuals who are believed to have fled the country amid ongoing criminal investigations.

According to Xinhua, China has inked separate deals with Canada, United States, and Australia in a bid to find and arrest officials accused of graft and corruption.

"Many of the fugitives are officials who spent a lot of time preparing to abscond. Typically, they transferred huge amounts abroad and secured visas well in advance," said Huang Feng, director of the International Criminal Law Research Institute in Beijing Normal University.

Feng added that more than 60 identified fugitives, who face bribing or embezzlement charges, are politicians.

Want China Times profiled Yang as "a former deputy mayor of the Zhejiang city of Wenzhou, and the provincial deputy construction bureau chief in April 2003."

TagsUS, China 100 most wanted, Yang Xiuzhu, Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, china most wanted list, china most wanted criminals, Yang Xiuzhu arrested