China's high-profile global crackdown on corrupt oligarchs, or "big crocs", has begun to flounder as geopolitical tensions rise between the Mainland and the West. Sources said cooperation between Chinese and Western governments had become especially difficult following the arrest of Meng Wanzhou, chief financial officer of Chinese telecoms giant Huawei, in Canada in December.China has retaliated by arresting a number of Canadian nationals on espionage charges, although it denies officially that these are linked to the Huawei case.Bill Majcher, a civil recovery expert who hunts down assets for governments and large organisations, said the frosty geopolitical climate was clearly hampering initiatives such as Sky Net and Fox Hunt."Fox Hunt and Sky Net, in my estimation, have not been as successful as the Chinese would like. As big as China is, it still only has finite resources at its disposal with the ability to interface with the outside world," Majcher said."The ascendancy of President Xi has caused some security ripples in China. This has been compounded by the US-China trade war, One Belt One Road growing pains, and the growing containment of global Chinese technology firms competing for 5G globally. All of this has taken some of the focus off Fox Hunt and Sky Net."Despite these challenges, and the diplomatic distractions facing Beijing, wealthy Chinese nationals living abroad are being very careful in the current environment. The fallout has also had an impact upon legitimate business people who have made fortunes in China and then left to live abroad.Some expats are using international law firms to manage everything from their financial assets to their travel itineraries in the present climate. A source said some of China's early tech tycoons, who had since moved abroad, were being particularly careful to avoid travel to a destination where China may be able to force an extradition. Even Hong Kong is off limits to some, at present."These people haven't done anything wrong. They've just fallen out of favour with Beijing, as they're perceived to be too closely aligned to the West. The early tech tycoons in China, for instance — they were all linked to Silicon Valley," a source said.Over the longer term, Majcher is confident that President Xi Jinping will mend bridges with the West and continue to tighten the noose around corrupt officials. He said China's oligarchs have collectively embezzled billions from the country's coffers and private investors."I believe those who have plundered the wealth of China and its citizens should not confuse government distraction with capitulation," he said.Beijing has had some major successes in repatriating stolen funds through Sky Net. In July last year the country's anti-corruption agency secured $485 million from the U.S., in the proceeds from a major corruption and bank fraud case. The recovery involved assets stolen by Xu Chaofan, the president of Bank of China's sub-branch in Kaiping, in the southern province of Guangdong.Xu fled to the United States in 2001. He was detained in 2003 following a cooperative effort between the law enforcement officials in both countries.