Chinese Man Was Caught By China's Skynet After 20 Years Of Fleeing

Back in 1997, 41-year-old Zhu joined in a fight which led to a person’s death. After that, he fled and changed his identity for over 20 years. He successfully managed to live with his new identity until October 2017 as he was caught by the Beijing police in Shenyang. On 13 April 2018, he was pleaded guilty in court for alleged intentional assault.

Zhu in court on 13 April 2018

According to the Beijing News, Zhu used a pseudonym “Jiang Guotai” and got a household registration and identity card as well. At the time he was caught, he had a wife and two daughters. His wife claimed that she was also deceived. She said: “If he was not arrested, we would not know his original name.”

Zhu's fake ID

The police listed Zhu to be a fugitive on the massive video surveillance network of China called ‘Skynet’ as he fled after committing the crime resulting in a man’s death. The Chinese government set up the ‘Skynet’ system in 2017 and uploaded all the photos of fugitives to track them down. And the police managed to catch Zhu when he checked in a hotel, using his fake ID ‘Jiang Guotai.’ The Skynet system found him to have similarities with the fugitive Zhu and that led to the policies arrested him shortly afterward.

Skynet - China's massive video surveillance network

On the day of the trial, Zhu’s wife, father-in-law and other family members also came to the court.

In the end, Zhu received a 6-year prison sentence. In front of the court, Zhu apologized to the family who was harmed and paid a compensation amount of CNY 20,000 (around Rs. 209,500). Despite being very disappointed about her husband, Zhu's wife still represented Zhu to compensate the victim's family.