Fugitive-turned entrepreneur arrested after 32 years on run

CHANGSHA - Police in Central China's Hunan province said Saturday they have arrested an entrepreneur who had been a fugitive for 32 years.

Huang Songming (alias) was jailed for six years in 1987 for stealing bicycles, a precious property of Chinese families back then, but escaped from prison the same year, according to the municipal public security bureau of Changde.

He then went into hiding in about a dozen Chinese provinces, working as a mason. He changed his name and got a new identity in the 1990s when returning to his hometown in Hubei, capitalizing on the lack of a national network in the then household registration system.

When he was arrested in late September, Huang, 55, had owned a building waterproofing company, and none of his relatives were aware of his fugitive status.

Police said the manhunt for Huang had never been dropped over the years. After the Ministry of Public Security launched a nationwide hunt for fugitives this year, it took over a month for police in Changde to finally track down Huang.