Nine people in Fujian province who had been convicted of telephone fraud breathed a sigh of relief when the judge announced their fate: They would be released on supervised reprieve if they promised to renounce crime and become productive, law-abiding citizens.

The nine, who were sentenced in 2016, are among about 300 offenders from Fujian whose convictions for telefraud have been set aside in recent years. In exchange for lenient treatment, they agreed to participate in a training program in which they would learn to start online businesses.

The decision was a turning point for the ringleader, 33-year-old Zhang Qiang from Shangqing town in Fujian's Anxi county.

"Standing in court, my mind was completely blank because of my unknown future," he said. "When I heard the sentence, I was relieved and a little excited. During my days in detention, I had reflected a lot and sincerely repented for what I had done."

The names of the offenders in this story have been changed because of their concerns about widespread public condemnation. They agreed to tell their stories on condition that their real names were not used.

For Zhang, the transformation from criminal to upstanding citizen involved deep self-evaluation, admitting his errors, dealing with his shame and openly resolving to do better.

Bad reputation

Anxi is best-known for a green tea called Tieguanyin. However, it also has a reputation among law enforcement authorities as an incubator of telecom fraud. In a widely reported case in 2016, the death of an 18-year-old woman who was about to enter college was attributed to stress after fraudsters took her limited tuition money. Five of the six suspects came from Anxi.

Zhang knew that telefraud was wrong and that it would hurt other people. But when his tea business failed in 2014, he led some friends from Anxi into it, rationalizing that life had dealt him a bad hand and there was no other way to support his wife and two children－a 10-year-old son and 9-year-old daughter.

He dreamed of making easy money, but he lived in fear of getting caught. Only when he was arrested did his mistake finally, forcefully, hit home.

Before the trial, Zhang spent 11 months in a detention facility with his accomplices, thinking about the choices he had made in life. He recalled how he and his associates lived together in a rented apartment and how－after buying information about disabled people and motorcycle owners－they would place phone calls claiming that the government had offered subsidies of about 2,000 yuan ($284). They told people that to get the money they would have to make a matching deposit in a bank account. After that, both the deposit and the subsidy would be handed over.

Of course, the victims never heard from them again.

Five months into the scam, Zhang and his accomplices were arrested in Shantou, Guangdong province, and eventually stood glumly together in court as they faced justice.

Zhang was sentenced to three years in prison, suspended for five years, and fined 50,000 yuan.

He had to pay 10,000 yuan to his lawyer, and on top of that, the court ordered restitution, so he needed another 50,000 yuan to recompense his victims. However, he had already spent all the money and was broke.

After his release, he encountered another problem: "I had told my family and friends that I was looking for a job in Guangdong. They didn't learn the truth until I was arrested. I didn't know how to face them because I was so ashamed."

He said his relatives tried their best to borrow the restitution money from family and friends. He gave it all to the court.

"The process made me feel even more regretful and ashamed. I had not only failed to improve my family's life, but actually increased their burden," he said.

Brighter future

The road ahead looks brighter for Zhang and other repentant fraudsters. He was sent to an e-commerce training course specifically designed for convicted criminals who had won reprieves and been released on parole to serve their sentences outside of prison.

"We guide them to participate in the e-commerce industry," said Wang Aiping, deputy director of the justice bureau in Anxi. "The local government has established several training bases and conducted more than 20 training sessions to educate 1,400 students, including several hundred who were involved in telecom and internet fraud."

Zhang said, "When I returned to my hometown, people gave me great support in building my new business, and so I relaxed a little."

All the trainees start with the basics－photography, picture editing and how to open and operate an e-commerce store.

"During the community correction programs, we found that a large number of the participants had turned to crime because they hadn't mastered any practical life skills," said Chen Yanzhong, director of the Shangqing justice bureau.

"Typically, those convicted of telefraud are more familiar with computers than other people and they have good learning capacity."

After finishing the course in 2016, Zhang chose rattan goods as his core business.

The traditional craft goes back more than 1,000 years in the county and is listed as a national intangible heritage.

Anxi is home to more than 2,200 rattan and ironwork companies and over 3,000 processing facilities. Around 150,000 people are involved in the industry.

Zhang's hometown, Shangqing, has created a complete production chain, including manufacturing, supply, marketing and logistics.

Over time, residents have developed rattan designs for home decorations, furniture and gifts, combining Chinese and Western elements.

"I had difficulty at the beginning because of my lack of experience, and ended the first year with a loss," Zhang said.

"But with the guidance of tutors from the training course, I discovered that my marketing methods were all wrong. I gradually improved, making a profit in the second year."

With business steadily improving, he hired four people to handle logistics and customer services after Spring Festival this year.

He wants to learn more to increase the online click rate for his store.

Zhang's annual income from his business on Taobao typically exceeds 300,000 yuan. He is proud of the honorable pursuit. It's a long way from where he was five years ago, living in fear of arrest.

Last year, the e-commerce volume in Anxi reached 8.3 billion yuan, with Tieguanyin tea and rattan artifacts ranked as the top industries.

Yuan Peng, 30, one of Zhang's former accomplices, is also from Shangqing and, like Zhang, he chose to sell rattan goods－tables and chairs－on his Taobao business. He earns around 20,000 yuan a month from his online store.

Now, he is preparing for his wedding at the end of the year.

"I met my fiancee during an industry exchange activity in 2016," he said. "I didn't hide my history from her and, luckily for me, she said she didn't mind, because she could see I was making efforts to correct my mistakes," he said.

"I feel very sorry for my parents. After I was arrested, they lived in anxiety. Now I've taken the right path, they can relax."

Yang Jie and Randy Wright contributed to the story.