China‘s stock market has long lost its role as an indicator of the country‘s economic pulse. But its bad reputation does not stop there.

Ten years ago, top economist Wu Jinglian described it as worse than a casino, because „in a casino at least you cannot see other people‘s cards“.

There has been improvement since then, but far from enough. Some of the listed companies have degenerated into „well-organized financial fraud syndicates“, as professor Zhou Xiaozheng from Renmin University of China put it. Their only goal is to round up as much money as possible through either insider trading or price manipulation, at the cost of the interests of small investors.

There are a lot of companies that just tell stories and make up figures to fleece investors.