Chinese woman has plastic surgery to avoid debts

WUHAN -- A Chinese woman had plastic surgery in an attempt to disguise herself to avoid paying massive debts.

Zhu Najuan, 59, underwent plastic surgery and disappeared after a court in Wuhan, capital of central China's Hubei Province, asked her to pay off huge debts of over 25 million yuan ($3.71 million) earlier this year.

In July, Zhu was reported to be in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen, where police officers from the Intermediate People's Court of Wuhan detained her and were astonished by her brand new face.

"We were very surprised at the scene," a policeman said. "She looked in her thirties and was different from the photos we had."

Zhu was detained and confessed that she had used people's ID cards to buy high-speed train tickets and borrowed bank cards to support her face-changing "career."

Recently, Wuhan judicial authorities launched a series of crackdowns on debt avoidance. The city's courts detained 186 people for debt avoidance in the first half of the year.

China is building a "credit society." On July 16, more than 300 Chinese cities jointly released a declaration about enhancing the credit system to improve people's credit rating.