Smuggling Show in Xiamen Draws Visitors

A show revealing how a multi- billion dollar smuggling ring was cracked has attracted a large audience in Xiamen, east China's Fujian Province.

Opening Monday, the show reveals details of the Xiamen Yuanhua group's massive smuggling operation between 1996 and 1999, Tuesday 's China Daily reports.

The smuggling case, involving Lai Changxing, 43, was basically concluded last month. Fourteen people, including officials at provincial level, were sentenced to death according to criminal law.

The office building of Xiamen Yuanhua Group, a seven-storey building decorated with a red mosaic, has become the venue of the show.

"The 'red building' was the place where executives of the Yuanhua Group hatched plots for smuggling and bribing government officials," the China Daily report quotes an introduction to the show.

The "red building", with luxurious eatery, ballrooms, karaoke bars, saunas, cinemas and bedrooms, is where dozens of high- ranking officials resigned themselves to degeneracy and became tools of Lai's group.

Investigations revealed that from 1996 to 1999, Lai and other suspects smuggled goods worth 53 billion yuan (6.38 billion U.S. dollars). The evaded tax totaled 30 billion yuan (3.6 billion U.S. dollars).

More than 600 people were involved in the illegal activities. To date, nearly 300 suspects have been put on trial.






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