Chinese police officials have arrested a middle-aged woman from the central Chinese city of Wuhan after she transformed her appearance using plastic surgery to avoid paying back the money she owed to several people. According to Russia Today , the woman who was later identified as 59-year-old Zhu Najuan, had debts amounting to more than 25 million Yuan, which approximately translates to $3.71 million USD.
Najuan, however, had no plans to pay back this amount and instead chose an ingenious way to avoid paying back the money to her creditors. She opted for plastic surgery to change her appearance. According to the officials who arrested her, Najuan’s eventual plan was to move to the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen and start a new life there using a forged identity. They went on to add that she had forged several documents and had even used other people’s identity cards to travel across the country by high speed trains. Her plastic surgery was, in fact, financed using borrowed bank cards, Chinese news agency Xinhua reported on Friday.
Following a tip, police officials tracked Najuan down and arrested her in mid-July. They were, however, initially not sure they had the right person since she did not look like the “original” Zhu Najuan. Police officers who arrested her confirmed that she looked much younger. According to a police officer who was part of the team that arrested her, Najuan looked several decades younger. The 59-year-old looked like she was still in her 30s, the unidentified policeman told local news reporters.
#Chinese woman undergoes #plasticsurgery to evade $5 million debt: Report https://t.co/keZTUjr0g8 pic.twitter.com/tu4vTPMyAS
— The Straits Times (@straits_times) July 29, 2017
Since her arrest, Zhu Najuan has been ordered by a court to pay back her $3.71 million in debts. At this time, it remains unclear how she plans to pay back the money to her creditors.
The arrest of Zhu Najuan comes at a time when China is on a mission to crack down on debt avoidance. According to China Daily , officials from Wuhan, the same city where Najuan lived, detained more than 186 people this year alone for debt avoidance.
Chinese woman undergoes plastic surgery to avoid paying $3.7mn debt https://t.co/P9ycNEIjC2 pic.twitter.com/xeqcYzJ2sx
— RT (@RT_com) July 29, 2017
The move is part of China’s attempts to building a credit society. In fact, on June 16, more than 300 cities from across the country issued a joint declaration to work on enhancing the credit system in an attempt to improve people’s credit rating.
[Featured Image by Africa Studio/Shutterstock]