A former Chinese company manager facing corruption charges who had fled to New Zealand has given himself up and returned to China, Xinhua news agency reported on Saturday.

Yan Yongming, former chairman of Tonghua Golden-horse Group, a pharmaceutical firm in the northeastern province of Jilin, has returned to China after 15 years in Australia and New Zealand, Xinhua said.

Xinhua said Yan was on the list of 100 wanted corruption suspects and he was the 36th fugitive to be arrested.

China has been trying to get increased international cooperation to hunt down corrupt officials since President Xi Jinping began a war against graft nearly four years ago.

But some Western countries have been reluctant to help, not wanting to send people back to a country where rights groups say mistreatment of criminal suspects remains a problem, and also complaining China is unwilling to provide proof of their crimes.