Some Xiamen residents appeared ambivalent about Lai Changxing after the sentencing, with two saying the case was history.
'He was quite famous in Xiamen back then, and has contributed a lot to Xiamen's economy,' a 40-year-old woman said.
A 27-year-old technician said she had not paid a lot of attention to the case. 'This matter happened a long time ago,' she said. 'Xiamen has already moved on from his time and the impact of his case.'
A hot topic on the internet was the enormous amount of tax that Lai was accused of evading.
'Lai smuggled 27.395 billion yuan, and evaded tax of 13.99 billion yuan. The tariff rate is 51 per cent,' one Twitter user wrote.
Another, referring to the high tariffs in the days before China joined the World Trade Organisation, wrote: 'With a tariff rate this high, we now know who is the real criminal.'
While some internet users questioned why Lai was not sentenced to death, lawyer Liu Xiaoyuan said Lai's life sentence was not surprising because smuggling was no longer a crime punishable by death after amendments to the Criminal Law last year, which he believed were introduced to facilitate Lai's extradition. China also promised Canada it would not to execute Lai.