Canada to extradite China’s most wanted fugitive

He was an illiterate peasant who is said to have built a multibillion-dollar smuggling empire with his wits and a gift for cultivating powerful officials at a pleasure palace he called the Red Mansion.

When the central government finally caught up to him, he narrowly escaped and made his way to Canada.

But Thursday a federal judge cleared the way for Lai Changxing, after more than a decade in Canadian courts appealing for asylum, to be extradited to China, where he’ll face criminal charges.

Judge Michel Shore said Canada had received extraordinary assurances that Lai would not be tortured or executed.

Canada does not have a death penalty and prohibits the deportation of prisoners to nations that might execute them.

China also promised to allow Canadian officials to accompany Lai during some legal proceedings.

Lai’s lawyer, David Matas, said the assurances by China were inadequate, noting that his client’s brother and accountant had died in prison without explanation.

The Chinese government had pressed Canada for years to return Lai, who has been regarded as China’s most wanted fugitive.

But on a visit to China this week, Canadian Foreign Minister John Baird echoed the sentiments of some conservative lawmakers who favored deporting Lai. Baird said neither country had time for “white-collar fraudsters.”

As of the end of last year, China has said, there were about 600 suspects on the lam overseas wanted by Beijing for serious economic crimes. None was more legendary than Lai, who parlayed his connections in the southern coastal city of Xiamen into a $6.4-billion operation smuggling cigarettes, automobiles and fuel.

Lai bribed police, military, customs and municipal officials to skirt about $3.6 billion in taxes, investigators said.

To keep them happy, Lai famously built the Red Mansion, where he wined and dined officials and kept them entertained with a small army of prostitutes.

Born in a poor farming village, Lai embodied the frenetic, get-rich-quick 1990s in China, when mass privatization gave rise to rampant corruption.

To rein in Lai and send a nationwide message, then-Premier Zhu Rongji ordered a massive investigation in 1999. The sweep netted hundreds of suspects, including high-level officials. More than a dozen people were sentenced to death.

The Red Mansion was converted into a museum to teach visitors about the consequences of graft. Ironically, it became a tourist hot spot, so popular that you needed connections to get in. It was soon shuttered, but Lai had already become something of a folk hero.

In 2000, a year after he landed in Canada, authorities arrested Lai during a gambling binge at a Niagara Falls casino. An appeal for asylum was rejected, forcing Lai and his attorneys to spend the next several years fighting extradition on the grounds his life would be endangered.

On Friday, China released a statement saying it was glad its “primary criminal suspect” was a step closer to facing justice at home.

“The Chinese government’s position is clear that Lai Changxing should be returned to stand trial in accordance with law,” said Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Ma Zhaoxu. “We welcome the decision by the Canadian court.”

david.pierson@latimes.com