Summary
Angry Chinese investors marched through Beijing Wednesday to demand government compensation for a multimillion-dollar futures scam. The protesters, believed that local officials help the companies scam them by allowing them to advertise in official publications. As many as 200 protesters marched for three hours through the center of the capital, ending up at the offices of the state-run Xinhua news agency. The protesters say Xinhua's reporting of the scam has been unfair.
Thousands of Chinese workers invested their life savings in Beijing-based Xin Guo Da Futures Co. LTD, lured by the promise of monthly interest payments of up to 30 percent. The brokerage was run by a Taiwan resident with suspected links to the Chinese People's Liberation Army. It shut its doors without warning in August and its chairman disappeared, leaving thousands of investors with tens of millions of dollars in losses.
In June, a month after local authorities closed down the companies, several thousand investors protested outside Zhengzhou's city hall. Similar protests have been reported throughout the country.
Investors have been holding almost daily sit-down protests ever since,
demanding that the government pay them back for the money they lost.
Links
summary
article
Xinhua (Mandarin)
Xinhua (English)
Comments (added by Huiming Qiu )
Mandarin reports for the story use two different Chinese names for the company involved-"Xin Guo Da Futures Co. LTD". One used by VOA (Voice of America) is 兴国大期货公司. The name used by other sources is 新国大期货经纪有限公司. They refer to the same company.