VANCOUVER - A Canadian court decided late Thursday to send one of China's most-wanted fugitive Lai Changxing back to China to answer criminal charges.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Ma Zhaoxu said in a statement shortly after the verdict that China welcomed the Canadian court's ruling to deport Lai.

Lai was accused of being the mastermind of a criminal ring which had conducted the biggest smuggling operation uncovered in China since 1949.

He fled to Canada with his family in 1999.