Large protest in Beijing, 67 people arrested

In a late evening announcement on July 26, police in the capital Beijing said they had arrested 67 protesters for disturbing public order.

Chinese people protest in Beijing on July 24. Screenshot

Reuters news agency quoted a Beijing police source as saying that some of those arrested were released after receiving “legal education”.

Meanwhile, Xinhua news agency said many people protested in the southern suburbs of the Chinese capital after the leadership of Shanxinhui Co., Ltd. was detained last week.

According to Reuters, authorities have blocked some roads leading into the center of the Chinese capital, but crowds are still large.

On July 21, Xinhua News Agency published an article saying that Mr. Truong Thien Minh, the representative of Thien Tam Hoi Company Limited, was suspected of being involved in criminal activities along with leaders of several other organizations, and that criminal enforcement measures had been taken against the suspects.

The Chinese Ministry of Public Security concluded that Thien Tam Hoi's activities were illegal and arrested Mr. Truong Thien Minh - the company's legal representative, and froze Thien Tam Hoi's bank account.

Worried about Mr. Truong's arrest and feeling hopeless about recovering their capital, on July 21, a series of Thien Tam Hoi members began to go to Beijing to protest.

By July 24, it was estimated that more than 60,000 people had participated in protests in front of the Beijing International Exhibition Center, the Supreme People's Procuratorate, and the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, demanding Zhang's release.

After a few hours of protests on July 24, Chinese police sent a series of buses to take the protesters away, dispersing the crowd.

Chinese special police conduct anti-riot drills in Beijing on July 22. Photo: REUTERS

Thien Tam Hoi is an investment program with the motto "rich and poor coexist", which has attracted more than 6 million members nationwide.

Thien Tam Hoi's model was called an illegal multi-level marketing organization by the Chinese Ministry of Public Security. The authorities assessed that this was a dangerous scam, taking advantage of the gullibility and generosity of people who love the idea of ​​making money while helping others.

According to Reuters news agency, on February 1, 2016, Chinese authorities arrested 21 people in a multi-level marketing ring that had swindled more than 50 billion yuan (7.4 billion USD) from 900,000 victims.

Xinhua news agency said those arrested were members of the online financial company Ezubao.

The company promises investors returns of up to 9-14.6% per year across a range of projects, far exceeding many financial services offered by Chinese banks.

Since its launch in July 2014, Ezubao has attracted more than 50 billion yuan from 900,000 investors. In fact, all of Ezubao’s projects are shell companies, and the company uses money from new investors to pay off old debts.

Ezubao is a subsidiary of Yucheng Group. Yucheng Group CEO Zhang Min, one of those arrested, admitted that Ezubao was “just a pyramid scheme scam.”

Yucheng Group spent about 800 million yuan, or $121 million, to buy financial information from companies to build virtual projects.

According to Tuoi Tre