A Canadian court ruled Thursday that China's most-wanted fugitive Lai Changxing will be repartriated back to China to answer criminal charges.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Ma Zhaoxu told reporters shortly after the verdict that China welcomed the Canadian court's decision to deport Lai.
Lai was the alleged mastermind of a multi-billion-dollar smuggling racket in Xiamen, Fujian Province.
From 1996 to 1999, through paying bribes and cultivating connections with local officials, Lai's gang managed to smuggle a range of goods valued at 53 billion yuan ($8.19 billion), from oil and cars to cigarettes, evading taxes of 30 billion yuan, an investigation revealed.
He fled to Canada with his family in 1999.