Lai Changxing (born September 15, 1958) is a Chinese former businessman and entrepreneur. He was the founder and Chairman of Yuanhua Group, based in the Special Economic Zone of Xiamen. He imported foreign products like cars, cigarettes and was responsible for one-sixth of the national oil imports at one time. In the late 1990s, he was implicated in corruption scandals involving a large smuggling ring. By 1999, he was described by several media organizations as "China's most wanted fugitive".

Lai evaded Chinese authorities and went to Canada, where he resided in Vancouver, British Columbia. After a 12-year extradition battle and diplomatic negotiations, Canadian authorities deported him to China on July 22, 2011, upon promises that he would not be executed. He was sentenced to life imprisonment in 2012.

Names

Despite his massive empire of wealth, Lai often smuggled goods into China and broke numerous trade laws. He has also been referred as "the one who destroys lives" and "the corrupted smuggler".

Early years

Lai was the eldest child born to Lai Yongdeng and Wang Zhuzhi in Jinjiang, Fujian province in 1958, the year the Great Leap Forward began. He was the first of eight children. He grew up in Shaocuo village ().

Career

Factory worker

When Lai was age 18, Mao Zedong died and private businesses began re-appearing across China under Deng Xiaoping. Lai began working at a farming machinery factory before it shut down. When Lai refused, the two officials went to his house. At the time Lai was not home, but his sister was. The officials asked for business accounts, but she refused to give in. The group was heavily involved in the importing/smuggling of cars, cigarettes and oil. The group invested heavily in the city's real estate, hotels, clubs, roads and other infrastructure. Lai also has his own brand of Fairwell cigarettes.

In the mid-1990s Xiamen no longer regulated maximum building heights. Many rich businessmen tried to build the tallest skyscrapers. Lai built the 88-floor Yuanhua tower and the Yuanhua International Centre with a groundbreaking ceremony attended by 2000 guests. Each guest received a 3000-yuan red envelope. Lai had prominent connections with the Fujian power elite; he was also a member of the Provincial Consultative Conference.

Lai was believed to be the mastermind of a US$10 billion scheme, during which he allegedly bribed high level officials in the administration of the Xiamen Special Economic Zone in order to smuggle luxury cars and entire tanker-loads of oil into the country. The smuggling ring fraudulently avoided US$3.6 billion in taxes and fees. In 1997 Xiamen's party secretary even made him an honorary citizen (). The mansion hired girls that were at least 5 ft 6 inches tall and have a highschool diploma at a salary of US$1000 a month. The girls were offered as sex mistresses and prostitutes to government officials. He typically drove sedans. His armoured Mercedes was formerly owned by Party General Secretary Jiang Zemin.

Relationships with officials and celebrities

According to Oliver August's book Inside the Red Mansion, Lai is known to be financially linked with high-ranking Chinese officials and celebrities. Some of the people include Ji Shengde, major general of military intelligence for the People's Liberation Army. Ji Shengde is the son of former Secretary General of the State Council Ji Pengfei.

August alleged that singer Dong Wenhua was offered 10 million yuan if she took her clothes off for Lai, who was drunk at the time. She purportedly did take off her clothes for the money, and disappeared from public view. She returned to state-run television after 3 years. Other corrupt officials include Liu Feng (), Zhuang Rushun (), Lan Fu (), Yang Qianxian (), Shi Zhaobin (),

According to August, then Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji, known for his anti-corruption stand and for repeatedly saying publicly that Lai needs to be executed, met Lai twice.

Lai himself was said to be an apprentice to then General secretary Jiang Zemin.

Emigration

Hong Kong

Lai resided in Fujian province before he moved to Hong Kong in April 1991. Leung apparently secretly warned Lai about the immigration department's pending warrant for his arrest. Leung also suggested Lai move to Canada to escape arrest.

Following heavy pressure from Beijing, Lai's Hong Kong permanent residency and HKSAR passport were revoked in 2002 by the Hong Kong Government, saying that he obtained the status dishonestly.

Following his detention in Canada, Lai was able to obtain his release, pending the hearing into his refugee claim, by placing himself under house arrest. He returned to the family's luxury condo in Burnaby, a suburb of Vancouver, and agreed to pay $80,000 per month to live under the guard of a private security firm. Notwithstanding such arrangements, Lai was observed by RCMP officers associating with known members of Asian smuggling gangs in Canada.

Lai denied criminal wrongdoing, and stated that the allegations were politically motivated. Others like Pierre Lemieux defended Lai, saying he is only a criminal because of China's communist economic system and that with a free market, there would be no need for smugglers like Lai. Chinese websites could write about Lai as long as he was depicted as evil.

On July 8, 2011, John Baird, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Canada, said that, the extradition of Lai must be conducted using Canadian laws. In early stages, Lai's Refugee Application was refused, with the possibility of extradition to China.

Extradition

Lai's corruption is known to have reached the top levels of the Chinese government. He has publicly declared in the past that if he returned to China: "many high government officials will not be able to sleep. Incidents will happen." In relation to the case, 14 people have already been executed, about 300 provincial officials have already been put on trial. Since 2002 Beijing sent MSS agents to follow him wherever he went. Spokesman of the Chinese ministry of foreign affairs has expressed satisfaction concerning this decision, referring to Lai as responsible for the "biggest economic crime in the history of the People's Republic of China."

Sentence

On May 18, 2012, Lai Changxing was sentenced to life imprisonment on charges of smuggling and bribery by the Intermediate People's Court in Xiamen. In addition, all of his property was confiscated.

References

  • A short film about the making of the book Inside the Red Mansion by Oliver August.