Fifty-two Singaporeans have been arrested and detained in China’s Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region following a law enforcement operation targeting suspected pyramid scheme activities and related offences, according to Singaporean authorities.
Singapore’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Singapore Police Force revealed the arrests in a joint statement on Friday, noting that Chinese authorities were still investigating the cases.
Sim Ann, Singapore’s second minister for foreign affairs, said consular officers from the country’s embassy in Beijing and its consulate in Guangzhou had visited all 52 detainees to check on their well‑being, assist with administrative matters and relay messages between the detainees and their families.
Sim, who is also second minister for home affairs, has met relatives of most of the detainees to offer support during what she called an “understandably difficult time”.
While officials did not give details of the operations involved, multilevel marketing scams – such as the long-running “1040 Sunshine Engineering” scheme – have repeatedly been targeted in police crackdowns in Guangxi.