(Bloomberg) -- China will widen its hunt for corrupt officials who have fled overseas with a new campaign that extends to more government agencies and the central bank.

The “Sky Net” operation, starting next month, will focus on capturing fugitive officials, cracking down on underground banks, and confiscating misappropriated assets, according to a statement posted Thursday on the website of the Communist Party’s top anti-graft agency.

The drive will involve at least four key central agencies: the People’s Bank of China, the party’s organizational department, the country’s top prosecuting body, and the Ministry of Public Security.

Tracking down economic fugitives and bringing them, and their ill-gotten assets back, has become a key component of President Xi Jinping’s anti-corruption campaign. Xi’s crackdown on graft -- the harshest since the republic’s founding in October 1949, state media say -- started weeks after he became party boss in November 2012. The campaign has snared more than 100,000 cadres, according to Central Commission for Discipline Inspection figures released in December.

David Fuller's view

The only sensible policy on political corruption is to crack down on it, assuming that the current regime is setting a high benchmark for governance standards, rather than persecuting political rivals.

Meanwhile, the Shanghai A-Shares Index remains steady, despite a short-term overbought condition.  The HK Hang Seng and the HK China Enterprises Indices appear well supported within their current ranges, and trade on attractive valuations.