Lai Changxing

Lai Changxing (born September 15, 1958) is a former Chinese 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.

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 (烧厝村).

He would have starved to death during the Great China famine but luckily in Jinjiang and the rest of south-eastern Fujian the situation was greatly milder due to massive overseas Chinese donations and better leadership (unlike Tingzhou where about 100,000 Hakkas starved to death due to the Great Famine), his family also survived because his father converted a swamp into a personal vegetable field during the most difficult years.

Lai received almost no formal education as he spent one year in school before the Cultural Revolution shut his school down.

According to some sources Lai received three years of education.

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.

At age 20 Lai started a business making simple car parts.

The business took off and turned into an empire.

Within a decade he was the country's biggest private car importer.

In the late 1990s, he was implicated in corruption scandals involving a large smuggling ring.

In 1990 Lai tried to run a business to import duty-free TVs, where he made thousands.

Two government officials from Shaocuo demanded fees be paid to them.

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.

She was then beaten severely and sent to the hospital.

The officials then started a tax fraud case.

Lai would win in court, but his revenge campaign against Communist officials would tie up his businesses.

Lai left Shaocuo and from this point on.

In the mid-1990s Xiamen no longer regulated maximum building heights.

Many rich businessmen tried to build the tallest skyscrapers.

In 1994 Lai founded Fairwell Group, also known as Yuanhua Group (远华集团有限公司), a prominent group of upstart companies that took advantage of the economic boom of Xiamen's status as a Special Economic Zone.

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.

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.

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.

After a lengthy 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.

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".