SHENYANG - A woman wanted by police in northeast Liaoning Province has turned herself in after fleeing to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) for eight years, police said on Sunday.

The woman, surnamed Wang, was among more than 9,000 fugitives who surrendered to or were arrested by Chinese police after the Ministry of Public Security launched a campaign to hunt down escapees a month ago. She was also the first absconding suspect nabbed in Liaoning after the launch of the operation.

Police say Wang was involved in a shell game of exporting laborers to the UAE, in which she profited tens of thousands of yuan in 2002.

Wang said she used a false identity and lived a tough, vagabond life in the UAE. "I dared not speak even when I was treated unfairly in business, and I often suffered nightmares and was very homesick," Wang said.

During the police campaign, policemen made frequent visits to Wang's close relatives and persuaded them to convince Wang to return home and face trial as soon as possible, because her surrender would increase her chances of a more lenient punishment.

Vice minister of public security Liu Jinguo on Wednesday urged law enforcement authorities nationwide to coordinate in the "cleaning up the wanted list" operation.

Thus far, the campaign has been successful, as police bureaus have gathered manpower and offered public rewards for tips that resolve shelved cases.

Liaoning police arrested a suspect on the ministry's class A wanted list after the operation began in June. Police say the man, surnamed Song, was the key figure involved in a car-theft case that involved more than 60 Hondas from 2006 and 2007.

The bureau initiated a massive manhunt for Song. Agents questioned more than 130 people who may have had contact with him and then pounced on him when he met a friend in Shenyang on June 30.

In southwest Yunnan Province, which borders the notorious Golden Triangle of Myanmar, Thailand and Laos, the police operation has been focused on apprehending drug, gang and ammunition-smuggling suspects. Police have detained more than 499 such suspects in the first month of the campaign.