Yang Jinjun arrives back in China on Friday. South China Morning Post/Xinhua The United States government repatriated a Chinese businessman on the list of the top 100 wanted Chinese fugitives on Friday, says the Chinese government.

Yang Jinjun, who is suspected of bribery and corruption, is the first of the 100 targets to be forcibly repatriated to China by the US government, said a statement released by the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection on Friday.

He is the 13th fugitive sent back to China as part of the mainland’s “Operation Sky Net” anti-graft operation, since it was launched in April this year.

The other 12 fugitives were either convinced by Chinese agents to return, or repatriated by other countries.

Yang fled to the US in 2001, and had been listed as a fugitive, subject to red notices issued by Interpol, since 2005.

A red notice appeals for the location and arrest of each wanted person, and asks those member states that have signed up to the organisation, which facilitates international police cooperation, to extradite them.

Yang, who is a Wenzhou native, is the manager and legal representative of Minghe Group, according to state media.

The people wanted as part of China's "Operation Sky Net". SCMP The announcement of this repatriation comes only days before President Xi Jinping’s visit to the US, which begins on Tuesday.

China has called for the US to help the repatriation of China’s corrupt officials or businessmen hiding in the US.

The repatriation of Chinese fugitives topped the agenda of a visit to the US earlier this month by Meng Jianzhu, the head of China’s Communist Party’s Central Politics and Legal Affairs Committee.

China especially wanted the US to repatriate Ling Wancheng, brother of former presidential aide Ling Jihua, and Guo Wengui, a businessman related to disgraced spy chief Ma Jian, South China Morning Post reported today.

In April, CCDI released a detailed list of the 100 fugitives it wants to extradite back to China as part of “Sky Net”.