Fraudsters swap life of crime for commerce

Brighter future

The road ahead looks brighter for Zhang and other repentant fraudsters. He was sent to an e-commerce training course specifically designed for convicted criminals who had won reprieves and been released on parole to serve their sentences outside of prison.

"We guide them to participate in the e-commerce industry," said Wang Aiping, deputy director of the justice bureau in Anxi. "The local government has established several training bases and conducted more than 20 training sessions to educate 1,400 students, including several hundred who were involved in telecom and internet fraud."

Zhang said, "When I returned to my hometown, people gave me great support in building my new business, and so I relaxed a little."

All the trainees start with the basics－photography, picture editing and how to open and operate an e-commerce store.

"During the community correction programs, we found that a large number of the participants had turned to crime because they hadn't mastered any practical life skills," said Chen Yanzhong, director of the Shangqing justice bureau.

"Typically, those convicted of telefraud are more familiar with computers than other people and they have good learning capacity."

After finishing the course in 2016, Zhang chose rattan goods as his core business.

The traditional craft goes back more than 1,000 years in the county and is listed as a national intangible heritage.

Anxi is home to more than 2,200 rattan and ironwork companies and over 3,000 processing facilities. Around 150,000 people are involved in the industry.

Zhang's hometown, Shangqing, has created a complete production chain, including manufacturing, supply, marketing and logistics.

Over time, residents have developed rattan designs for home decorations, furniture and gifts, combining Chinese and Western elements.

"I had difficulty at the beginning because of my lack of experience, and ended the first year with a loss," Zhang said.

"But with the guidance of tutors from the training course, I discovered that my marketing methods were all wrong. I gradually improved, making a profit in the second year."

With business steadily improving, he hired four people to handle logistics and customer services after Spring Festival this year.

He wants to learn more to increase the online click rate for his store.

Zhang's annual income from his business on Taobao typically exceeds 300,000 yuan. He is proud of the honorable pursuit. It's a long way from where he was five years ago, living in fear of arrest.

Last year, the e-commerce volume in Anxi reached 8.3 billion yuan, with Tieguanyin tea and rattan artifacts ranked as the top industries.

Yuan Peng, 30, one of Zhang's former accomplices, is also from Shangqing and, like Zhang, he chose to sell rattan goods－tables and chairs－on his Taobao business. He earns around 20,000 yuan a month from his online store.

Now, he is preparing for his wedding at the end of the year.

"I met my fiancee during an industry exchange activity in 2016," he said. "I didn't hide my history from her and, luckily for me, she said she didn't mind, because she could see I was making efforts to correct my mistakes," he said.

"I feel very sorry for my parents. After I was arrested, they lived in anxiety. Now I've taken the right path, they can relax."

Yang Jie and Randy Wright contributed to the story.