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Frank Tang

Beijing police have detained 67 members of a pyramid fund scheme for disturbing social order after thousands of investors staged a rare protest in the Chinese capital earlier this week.
They staged the demonstration on Monday over the government’s decision to call the scheme illegal and arrest its ringleader, Zhang Tianming.
State media reported that Shanxinhui, which means Kindness Exchange, has at least five million members and claims to help with poverty reduction.
Police quickly dispersed the protest, highlighting the authorities’ sensitivity to any sign of social disorder ahead of the Communist Party congress this autumn, which will oversee changes in the leadership.
Beijing closes major road over rare protest triggered by company fraud probe
Sixty three people were detained on criminal charges, police said in a statement. Four others were held for administrative offences, meaning they will not face criminal charges.
“Police have released some who created minor harm, but made good confessions. However there will be a crack down on those plotting and inciting the gathering,” the statement said.
It was not the first time the pyramid scheme members have staged a protest in China.
China declares war on get-rich schemes, citing risk of social unrest
Pictures posted on Weibo, China’s equivalent of Twitter, show a demonstration held in Yongzhou in Hunan province last month after police froze more than 100 million yuan (US$14 million) in Shanxinhui funds. The government’s crackdown has fanned fears among people paying into the scheme that their money would be lost.
Shanxinhui lured investors with a promised return of 10 per cent to 30 per cent within weeks and offered “bonus payments” to those who recruited new members, the police said.
The lack of financial knowledge and awareness among the general public, as well as the country’s fragmented financial regulatory framework and a decade of low interest rates, have helped fuel the proliferation of fraudulent investment schemes in China, according to analysts.
Chinese police swoop on HK$59 billion ‘record-breaking online Ponzi scheme’
China’s public security minister Guo Shengkun stressed action against fraudulent financial schemes to curb unrest after financial stability was highlighted at a national financial work conference earlier this month.
Why Ponzi schemes are thriving in China despite crackdowns
Some members of Shanxinhui remain convinced it is a genuine investment scheme.
“I’m just an ordinary member, I just know that we are helping the poor and the disabled,” one member from Hunan province told the South China Morning Post.
“At the bottom of the social class, I’m a beneficiary as my living conditions have improved. I don’t feel that I was cheated … I hope this platform serving the masses can be preserved,” she said.


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Zhang Xiaolei, founder of Chinese fintech firm Qbao, to serve 15-year jail firm for fraudulent fundraising

Eight charged in China over ‘Ponzi scheme posing as P2P lender’ that took US$9 billion

Eleven investors held after Chinese Ponzi scheme protests

China's ponzi scheme

Sixty-seven held after big pyramid scheme protest in Beijing

Demonstrators taking part in the protest on Monday. Photo: Kyodo

People protest against police in Beijing on July 24, 2017, for closing the road to a gathering where at least several thousand people staged a rare large-scale rally not far from Tiananmen Square in connection with a recent crackdown on a company suspected of being involved in a pyramid scheme. (Kyodo) ==Kyodo

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Protesters staged rare demonstration in the tightly policed capital after the authorities took action to close the fund down


Sixty-seven held after big pyramid scheme protest in Beijing

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Protesters staged rare demonstration in the tightly policed capital after the authorities took action to close the fund down

Protesters staged rare demonstration in the tightly policed capital after the authorities took action to close the fund down