Shanghai | An Australian resident has been coaxed back to China to face corruption charges, just weeks after Beijing said it would increase pressure on the United States and other Western countries to hand over graft suspects who have fled abroad. 
China's Central Commission for Discipline Inspection said in a statement late on Wednesday that Tang Dongmei had returned home on   May 22 and confessed to her crimes.
The 56-year-old had been living in the Melbourne suburb of Kew, after fleeing the southern province of Fujian in 2008. It is unclear if she holds an Australian passport or was a permanent resident.
It is understood the Department of Foreign Affairs is not providing Ms Tang with consular assistance.
She is accused of embezzling money from her time as an accountant at a state-run trading company.
Ms Tang is almost certain to be found guilty and is facing a long jail term in China.
The circumstances under which she voluntarily returned to China were not mentioned in the statement, but have the potential to become a minor bilateral issue.
Canberra has previously warned Beijing about using undercover agents to pursue corruption suspects in Australia, registering its ''deep concern'' and saying it was ''unacceptable''.
China's two-year-old campaign to bring back corruption fugitives is alternatively called ''Operation Fox Hunt'' or ''Operation Skynet''.
The return of Ms Tang comes after President Xi Jinping said he would use China's hosting of the G20 leaders' summit this year to push for greater international co-operation in the fight against corruption.
''We will put forward a series of proposals on global anti-corruption efforts and establish a new international order on fighting corruption,'' Mr Xi said, according to a transcript of a speech released by The People's Daily.
"In particular, we will ratchet up pressure on the US and other Western nations ... which used to use those criminal suspects as their cards [against China],'' he said.
Mr Xi added that Chinese corruption suspects had become ''hot potatoes'' for host countries.
After a period of relative quiet, the speech by Mr Xi suggests China is once again ramping up its efforts to bring home foreign graft suspects.
The Australian Financial Review reported last week an Australian man had been quietly sentenced to life in prison by a Shanghai court, which found he fraudulently obtained funds of 91 million yuan ($18.7 million) and assumed a fake identity before fleeing China.