Yang Xiuzhu arrives at Beijing International Airport on Wednesday, Nov. 16, 2016. [Screenshot: CCTV]

China's top economic fugitive has returned to China, after dropping her application for political asylum in the U.S., and giving herself up to the Chinese authorities.

70-year-old Yang Xiuzhu, a former vice mayor of Wenzhou in east China's Zhejiang Province, had been on the run for 13 years.

According to her lawyer, Yang had expressed the wish to return to China in order to receive better medical treatment, as her asylum application had been postponed for 8 months, and medical conditions in American jails were poor.

Chinese investigators have accused Yang of accepting bribes worth more than 250 million yuan, or 41 million US dollars, while in office, putting her top of the Chinese government list of corrupt officials who have fled abroad.

After fleeing the Chinese mainland, she traveled to Hong Kong and 7 other cities, and tried to seek asylum in France and The Netherlands. Both attempts failed.

In 2014, Yang entered the United States and again applied for asylum. That application was dopped in July.

Officials such as Yang have increasingly become the focus of Chinese president Xi Jinping's anti-corruption campaign since 2015, after it expanded overseas with its "Sky Net" and "Fox Hunt" programs, aimed at catching runaway corrupt officials.

Yang Xiuzhu arrives at Beijing International Airport on Wednesday, Nov. 16, 2016. [Screenshot: CCTV]