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. 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 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. 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 (). 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. 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. 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. TV business 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