China yesterday welcomed a decision by a Canadian immigration panel to deny political asylum to Lai Changxing, the man it says masterminded the biggest smuggling racket in the country's history.
'The evidence of his criminal activity is solid,' said a statement by the Foreign Ministry on its Web site. 'He is absolutely not a refugee but a criminal who absconded to avoid punishment. The decision conforms with this basic fact.'
Beijing accuses Lai and the Yuan Hua Group he headed in Xiamen, Fujian province, of smuggling 53 billion yuan (HK$49.8 billion) worth of luxury goods, cars, oil, petrochemicals, electronics, steel, construction materials and other items into China in the mid-1990s, evading taxes estimated at 30 billion yuan.
It has put more than 300 suspects involved with Lai on trial and sentenced 14 to death, including provincial officials and a former vice-minister of public security, Li Jizhou.
Premier Zhu Rongji has said Lai deserves to die 'three times over'. The Premier was enraged that, after being tipped off by one of his contacts in the top ranks of the Fujian police, Lai escaped to Manila just before he was about to be arrested. He fled to Canada in 1999.
Beijing has since spared no effort to bring him back. It sent secret police with his brother, who had been given a jail sentence, to Vancouver for a meeting with Lai, at which they tried to persuade him to return, promising lighter sentences for his family members. When that failed, Chinese agents followed Lai whenever he left the expensive villa he had bought, forcing him to move into an apartment block with 24-hour security because he feared assassination.
