52 S’poreans arrested in China over suspected involvement in illegal pyramid scheme
Kok Yufeng
The Straits Times
Sept 4, 2026
Chinese authorities in Guangxi province have arrested and detained 52 Singaporeans over their alleged involvement in pyramid scheme activities, in what could be the largest foreign detention of Singapore citizens to date.
The arrests were revealed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) and the Singapore Police Force (SPF) in a joint statement on Sept 4.
According to MFA and SPF, the 52 detainees were nabbed as part of a wider law enforcement operation in Guangxi in southern China against suspected pyramid scheme activities and related offences.
Investigations by the Chinese authorities are ongoing, and the SPF has contacted its Chinese counterparts to seek more information.
Speaking to Singapore media at her ministry’s headquarters in Sherwood Road on Sept 4, Second Minister for Foreign Affairs Sim Ann said the Singapore embassy in Beijing and the Consulate-General in Guangzhou have made three visits to all 52 detainees to check on their well-being and provide consular assistance.
This includes conveying requests from those arrested, passing on messages from their families, and facilitating administrative matters.
In Singapore, MFA officers are in touch with the next-of-kin.
Sim, who is also Second Minister for Home Affairs, told the media that she has met the family members of most of the detainees.
“We are doing all we can to help them through an understandably difficult time,” Sim said.
“Even as we provide consular assistance to the affected Singaporeans, I would like to emphasise that the Singapore government does not interfere in the judicial process and investigations of other countries, just as we expect foreign governments to respect our laws and legal process,” she added.
“The Singapore government will continue to pay close attention to the case and stress that due process should be accorded to our citizens,” she said.
MFA and SPF did not provide more details about the case or the status of the investigations. It is not clear if other Chinese or foreign nationals were swept up in the Guangxi operation.
Typically, those suspected of criminal activity in China can be detained for up to 37 days before prosecutors decide whether to approve their arrest. Subsequently, investigations and evidence collection can take between two months and seven months.
Prosecutors will then review the case before it goes to court. Based on publicly available information, this review process could take anywhere from one month to several months.
Heavy crackdown
The arrests of the Singaporeans in Guangxi, officially the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, come amid a heavy nationwide crackdown by the Chinese authorities against pyramid selling.
Between 2021 and 2025, China investigated more than 200,000 cases of pyramid schemes and direct selling violations, according to the State Administration for Market Regulation, which said in November 2025 that it would continue to severely clamp down on such activities.
Under Chinese criminal law, it is an offence to organise or lead pyramid scheme activities.
There are two penalty tiers. For base cases, the punishment is a fine and jail or detention for up to five years. For serious cases, which include schemes that cumulatively have 120 or more participants or involve funds exceeding 2.5 million yuan (S$470,000), the penalty is a fine and at least five years’ imprisonment.
In June 2025, China revised its public security laws to give police the legal grounds to issue administrative penalties, such as fines and short detentions, against rank-and-file participants of pyramid schemes, who were not usually prosecuted under criminal law.
These revisions took effect in January 2026.
To add even more legal teeth, China has since released draft amendments to existing regulations prohibiting pyramid selling. The amendments, if passed, will target online schemes for the first time. They will also introduce a financial fund monitoring system and significantly increase fines.
Meanwhile, there have been several high-profile enforcement operations against pyramid networks across multiple Chinese provinces and cities over the past two years.
Over several months in 2025, police in Chengdu in Sichuan province dismantled a major scheme involving more than 23 million yuan that targeted college students and fresh graduates.
In the northwestern city of Xi’an, police there arrested 130 people and raided more than 180 locations in June 2026. This came a few months after the city was designated by Shaanxi province as a provincial base for investigating and combating pyramid schemes.
While MFA and SPF did not specify what type of scheme the arrested Singaporeans were allegedly involved in, Guangxi is notorious for being the birthplace of what is known as the “1040 Sunshine Project”.
Operating under many other guises, such as “chain operation”, “capital operation”, the “Beibu Gulf Development Project”, and less flatteringly, the “Nanning investment scam”, versions of this scheme have been running for decades across China, and in some parts of South-east Asia.
Based on Chinese court judgements and reports of past cases reviewed by The Straits Times, the scheme can take many forms but has some defining traits.
First, recruits are often lured in by close friends and family, or under the false pretences, such as tourism, a high-paying job, and even romantic relationships.
They are then asked to pay an entry fee to join the scheme and persuaded to buy “investment shares” in a fictitious government-backed development or some other fake business venture, with the total upfront payment frequently being 69,800 yuan.
The false promise they are given is that by recruiting others, they will eventually net a payout of up to 10.4 million yuan, which is where the “1040” scheme gets its name.
Those in the scheme are often told that it is secret and exclusive. Another common tactic is for pyramid scheme groups to rent residential flats, where participants are kept isolated from outside influence and brainwashed through group activities and lectures on getting rich.
In their statement on Sept 4, MFA and SPF issued a reminder to Singaporeans who are travelling or residing overseas that they are subject to the laws of the country they are in.
Sim said: “On behalf of the police, I wish to reiterate that Singaporeans should exercise caution when considering business or investment schemes, whether overseas or local.
“This is especially so for schemes involving the recruitment of participants, upfront payment of large sums of money, or promises of unusually high returns.”
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