It may seem incredible but Qin Yongjun, who only got as far as a
junior high school education, has managed to deceive thousands of
college students in a cosmetics marketing scam. This one time
farmer turned head of an illegal pyramid selling company himself
wonders how he managed to attract so many intellectual
followers.
"I had not expected it all to turn out this way. What do you think
my sentence will be? Will it be years in prison, life imprisonment
or even the death penalty?" sighed Qin, now locked up in yellow
prison clothes in Yubei district of
Chongqing
municipality.
It was June 24 and it had all gone pear shaped for Qin. From
September 2003 to March 2004, Qin and his organization enticed more
than 2,000 college students into participating in an illegal
pyramid selling operation in Chongqing. The students drawn into the
scam came from all parts of the country. Some were even whiz kids
from the highly prestigious Tsinghua and Peking Universities.
The central government has attached great importance to the case
and Premier Wen
Jiabao has personally issued instructions urging the
authorities to "crack down strictly on illegal pyramid selling
activities," and urging the schools to "adopt measures to prevent
students from being cheated by and participating in these
schemes."
So how did a little known pyramid selling organization, the
self-styled French Olymen Cosmetic Co. Ltd., succeed in tempting so
many well educated university students into getting involved in its
illegal activities in just half a year?
Qin's rapid rise
Qin Yongjun, 38, comes from a farming background in Xiangcheng
City of central China's Henan
Province. His education finished when he graduated from junior high
school. At the start of 2003, he went to Chongqing and joined the
French Olymen Cosmetic Co. Ltd after paying a "registration fee" of
3,350 yuan (about US$400) to buy the cosmetic products. From then
on Qin made money through developing new "members". Every time he
introduced a new member to the scheme he got 510 yuan (a little
over US$60). Altogether he made himself nearly 600,000 yuan (about
US$72,500).
Qin confessed that at first he and his associates posed as
students of a Xi'an-based college to win the confidence of the
university students. Through offering lectures and training
activities they persuaded the students that this was a business
opportunity which could not fail to make them a lot of money. They
told the students what they wanted to hear and let them get on with
the work of propagating the scam. Meanwhile Qin found he could get
rich quick while others did the work.
Crouching in the corner of a prison cell, Qin looked at the
light reflecting on his handcuffs and said quietly, "I'm just an
illiterate farmer, I didn't expect it could all develop so smoothly
and be attractive to so many college students."
Brainwashed through singing, courting and studying
success
As the Olymen Cosmetics Company was in fact operating illegally,
its products could not be legally sold on the market.
Its organizational structure was a five-tier hierarchy within
which positions were allocated on the basis of the number of
"subordinates" who had been persuaded to buy their way into the
pyramid. There were "parents" who had brought in 3-9 subordinates,
"directors" (10-69) and "managers" (70-399). To become a "general
deputy" like Qin, 400 plus subordinates were required.
Li Ping, a junior student at a Hunan-based university described
her experience of 'brainwashing':
On the first day, after presenting a lecture on the theme of
"success", the instructors brought the students together in a small
room to play games. Every member of the group was asked to sing and
speak on the stage and had to address the others as "manager".
There was a "courtship" game which involved continuing to
propose to a member of the opposite sex until he or she accepted.
Li said, "The game is aimed at overcoming feelings of humiliation
and diffidence. It's rather provocative."
Over the course of the next few days, the members would be
immersed in visualizing the pleasures of the "pursuit of success".
They were told of the "theory and practice of direct selling,"
learning that "direct selling is the forth opportunity that modern
China's economic development offered youth." This was typical of
the "course" content, which was full of fine sounding but
essentially pretentious nonsense like "the poor need no money but
ambition".
A vicious circle of recruitment
In order to recoup their own initial investment, each victim who
has been recruited to the pyramid must in turn recruit more victims
to become his or her subordinates.
Tang Ming was detained as a "manager" in the illegal
organization. He had started as a victim himself but before long,
like most victims, this dupe became a duper.
"I hate the guts of the people who got me into this!" said Tang.
This particular youngster had gone back to college this March to
prepare to make an oral defense of his graduation thesis. But he
was arrested several days before he could present his defense
because he had been responsible for the recruitment of more than
200 new members into the scam.
"It took me three years to prepare for the entrance examinations
to get into university. But now I won't be able to get my degree,"
said a remorseful Tang.
Tang was once a cadre in the student association of his
university in Hubei Province. He persuaded two other students to
join the company. One was the Communist Youth League branch
secretary at the university. Tang pointed out wryly that if only
they had not been such able people he wouldn't be in prison today.
One of his "subordinates", the League branch secretary, had
succeeded in recruiting more than 100 members for Tang over the
past several months.
Supporters of an "evil economic cult"
According to police sources at the Chongqing, Yubei Public
Security Bureau, most of the 2,000 or so college students had been
so effectively inducted into the scam that even after the operation
was exposed as "pyramid" selling they still held to the mistaken
belief that it was in fact "direct selling" that they were involved
in. They insisted it was a "brilliant cause" and a "new innovation"
and compatible with current trends in socio-economic development.
And now some of the students have even started it up all over again
in the cities of Chengdu and Chongqing and in Hubei Province.
One undercover policeman said, "They seemed to be just bewitched.
They would listen attentively at the 'training classes' and in just
a few days would have taken down a thick wad of notes."
"With its brainwashing, daily ceremonies and tight
organizational structure for exercising control over the individual
members, what we are tackling here is nothing less than an evil
economic cult," said Chen Ping, director of the Chongqing Public
Security Bureau Information Center.
"We can save their bodies, but we cannot save their souls," said
one policeman who had taken part in the rescue operation to get the
students away from the clutches of the illegal organization.
One student wrote these words on a train after becoming a
member, "I have no idea what tomorrow will bring, but right now
what I'm facing is a realistic excuse to break free which lies
somewhere between hope and desperation. When I look out at the vast
green expanse of the open countryside and the distant rolling
mountains through the window, I have a sense of the capricious
nature of life. Maybe it would be natural for someone to refuse to
become a caged spirit. Instead of caution he might instead be eager
for challenges and conflict in the unknown. Here on the train my
instinct tells me this will change the course of my life."
A psychologist explains
Many people have gotten into pyramid selling through their greed
for excessive profits. But with this particular group of college
students, could there be other mechanisms at work pushing them into
the murky waters of pyramid selling?
Zheng Xiaobian, a psychologist at Huazhong Normal
University pointed out that many students were confused by the
preaching of "equality" and "friendship". Everyone has a need for
recognition and to be cared about by others. For some students
these needs were not being satisfied during their time at
university.
During the pyramid selling activities, the members were brought
together like a single well united family. They all slept on the
floor and ate simple communal vegetarian meals. They developed a
sense of empathy which led them to depend on each other.
Recruitment was mostly from among those students who were
introverted and taciturn. They had few friends and were so gullible
that they were often taken in before they were aware of what was
happening. As students they seldom felt successful whereas the
pyramid selling organization provided them with the illusion of
success.
Then there were the motivators of group suggestion and the need
to conform to the norms of group behavior. The better educated a
person is, the more susceptible he or she will be to such
suggestion due to a stronger curiosity and thirst for
knowledge.
Lin Shanyuan, section chief of the China University
of Geosciences student department, added that the students'
lack of religion and limited social experience and the relaxed
administrative systems at the universities were also contributing
factors.
Illegal pyramid selling or legal direct
selling
"Most people still don't know about pyramid selling," said Yang
Yu, deputy leader of the Chongqing Public Security Bureau Economic
Investigation Team. "The public can't tell the difference between
pyramid selling and direct selling. So it's imperative to work at
creating the right conditions if society is to protect itself in
the fight against pyramid selling activities."
To solve the problem, insiders consider that the crux of the
matter lies in the promulgation of new laws on direct sales. Under
China's WTO commitments this is scheduled to happen in September of
this year. Pyramid selling operators try hard to cover up their
unlawful activities by describing them as direct selling. The new
legislation should help the public to differentiate between illegal
pyramid selling and legal direct selling.
Specific pyramid selling cases involving college
students:
On May 29, 2004, the public security department in Xuzhou of
eastern Jiangsu Province rescued three students from the China
Medical University and Southern Yangtze University in a shock
investigation into eight pyramid marketing cells.
On May 19, 2004, Linfen City in central China's Shanxi Province
found more than 40 college students among the pyramid sellers when
they broke up a pyramid selling operation.
On October 31, 2003, when pyramid selling was exposed in Haikou
City of south China's Hainan Province, all 13 operators involved
were university students.
On September 9, 2003, Guigang city in southern Guangxi?
hunted down a pyramid selling ring where some 90 percent of the 500
or so participants were college students.
On August 27, 2003, Hepu County in Guangxi broke up an illegal
pyramid selling organization seizing 146 members, most of whom were
students.
(China.org.cn by Li Xiao, July 12, 2004)
