[Channel 4 News] Chinese ant farmers left with crumbs

By Lindsey Hilsum:

"Aphrodisiacs, ants and a million investors facing ruin ... the collapse of a giant pyramid selling scheme is taking the gloss off China's roaring economy.

Government officials endorsed a company that got people to buy boxes of insects to rear at home, for a promised 30% return. The ants were ingredients in health products including a version of Viagra.

Protests by angry investors, most of whom lost their life savings, were crushed. But some victims are theatening to disrupt this summer's Olympic Games.

Yilishen, the Magic Power of Ants, was promoted on TV in north-eastern China. Ant products, it was promised, would bring health and cure impotence. Better than that: if you invested in the company, you would become successful like its, CEO Wang Fengyou. He persuaded more than a million Chinese to buy boxes of ants to rear for Yilishen, with the promise of massive profit.

China's tallest man even endorsed Yilishen ant products, part of the cult of celebrity Wang Fengyou used to convince peasants and laid off factory workers to part with their savings. Then, last November, the company failed to pay out.

Angry investors demonstrated outside the government offices in Shenyang and surreptitiously filmed their protest. Many were arrested, others beaten by police determined to stop any more Chinese coming out on the streets.

Wang Fengyou's arrest was shown on local Shenyang TV. He was charged not with fraud, but with disrupting public order and interrupting the traffic. He made a public confession that he had called people on to the streets.

One desperate investor tried to slit her wrists, another set himself on fire near Tiananmen Square.Others are threatening to disrupt the Beijing Olympics.

The demise of Yilishen shows how China's get-rich-quick economy is shaped by relationships with officials, not regulation. By blaming Wang Fengyou and suppressing information, the Chinese government hopes to quash further protest. There is little they fear more than a million people with nothing left to lose.

Our China correspondent Lindsey Hilsum travelled to the north-eastern city of Shenyang to investigate the Yilishen story."

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• Channel4
• News
• China
• ants
• fraud
• ant
• farm
• investors
• funny
• state
• repression
• government
• corruption
• coverup
• protests
• riots

[bigart1993]

What a bunch of peasants!!!

[lastmohicanfromchina]

trust this ccp ,trust this evil government?

now you know you can not trust these bunch of liars. the ccp has been cheating on you since its inception

[WolYou]

China was never communistic. It has been called communist. But its simply an oligarchy like the USA. Just not as "developed" :)

[WolYou]

lol. get a nice suit, get some fotos showing you with some guy from the government, print a glossy folder and you could even sell farts to the greedy people as long as you promise them a 30% return. the most important part is to show how rich you might become when you just do what youve been told. this system works as well in the USA.

[shibalgeseki13]

wow idiots? wanna farm this silverfish i caught?

[PRCForever]

HAHAHA

Anti CCP terrorists deserved this

Chinese poor people should go die. Then our GDP per capita will rise

[Scifon]

lol, tards :p

[NativeMoon]

Capitalism at its worst in a Communist country...how ironic.

[johnknoefler]

reminds me of Chinchilla farms and rex rabbit schemes. Viagra ants. What a scam.

[pipboyx]

Get the fuck out of China Lindsey Hilsum, you right winged bitch. The people don't welcome you!!!