China's former fugitive arrested in Beijing

China's most wanted fugitive, Lai Changxing is arrested by Chinese authorities after he landed in Beijing on Saturday ending more than a decade long attempted evasion of imprisonment in his own country.

The 53 year-old was accused of running a multibillion-dollar smuggling operation in the southeastern city of Xiamen that caused government upheaval in the late 1990s before he fled China in 1999.

He later flew to Canada from Hong Kong with his family in 1999 landing in Canada with his wife and two children on tourist visas and later sought refugee status, saying the allegations against him were politically motivated.

Mr. Lai was first arrested in Canada a year after he fled, at a casino in Niagara Falls.

Canadian courts consistently rejected his claim to asylum status but refused to send him back to China.

After 11 years of battling to remain in Canada, Lai's long legal case ended when a Canadian federal court ruled against Mr. Lai, calling him a common criminal that is not under any risk of torture or execution.

Lai's deportation was decided just after Canadian Foreign Minister John Baird's visit to Beijing, where Mr Baird hailed China as a Strategic ally reversing the government's previous critical stance on China's human rights record when Harper made waves in 2006 when he said that he would not sell out human rights in China for the almighty dollar.

Chinese authorities said Saturday that Lai's massive operations had seriously disrupted China's economic order and created huge economic losses for the nation.

State television showed Lai, dressed in a grey polo T-shirt and wearing thick-framed black glasses, looking dejected and nodding as police read out his rights. After he was made to sign his warrant, he was escorted into a SWAT vehicle.

Lai's eventual trial is assured to be an open trial by the Chinese authorities where he will be allowed to use a defense against the smuggling charges.

But many believes the public trial to be held up as a showcase for the government's ongoing battle against corruption.

Lai's lawyer, David Matas, says those assurances are empty promises that don't give his client any comfort and his client doesn't believe he'll receive a fair trial in China and meet similar fate like his brother and accountant who both died in prison under mysterious circumstances.

Other legal experts and human rights activists said it was unlikely Lai could receive a fair trial in China.

Lai faces bribery charges of more than $1 million, $3.8 billion in tax evasion and allegations of operating a $10-billion smuggling ring.