Chinese woman gets new face to avoid RM16m debt

SHANGHAI: A 59-year-old woman from the central Chinese city of Wuhan transformed her appearance through plastic surgery in order to avoid 25 million yuan (RM16.3 million) of personal debts, state news agency Xinhua said late on Friday.

In a case highlighting the challenges facing China as it tries to establish a “credit society”, police officers were reported to be “astonished” after apprehending the woman, who fled to the southeastern city of Shenzhen after a court in Wuhan ordered her to pay off her debt.

“We were very surprised at the scene,” a policeman said.

“She looked in her 30s and was different from the photos we had.”

The woman, identified as Zhu Najuan, confessed to using other people’s identity cards to travel across the country by train. She financed her plastic surgery using borrowed bank cards.

Representatives from more than 300 Chinese cities released a declaration earlier this month promising to make more credit available for consumer spending, part of the country’s efforts to find new sources of economic growth and reduce its dependence on heavy industry and infrastructure investment.

As regulators try to establish a reliable nationwide credit rating system, authorities across the country are also exploring new ways to crack down on debtors.

One court in Jiangsu province has drawn up a blacklist of defaulters. Anyone who telephones an individual on the blacklist will first be forced to listen to a prerecorded message saying “please urge this person to fulfil their legal obligations”. Reuters