What are Chinese exporting to the world?
A voice from China comments on three attention-grabbing cases involving fellow Chinese abroad caught up in extremely serious transnational crimes related to fraud, drugs, and human trafficking. “In our textbooks, the Opium War of two centuries ago is presented as a national tragedy,” so why when “we are rich and strong,” are we “installing slot machines in the poorest areas of Africa”?
As a rising great power, China exports not only a lot of goods, but also "morally flawed products" generated by a particular social environment.
Three Chinese nationals – Chen Zhi, Zhi Dong Zhang (Brother Wang), and Qian Zhimin – recently made the news in connection with extremely serious transnational crimes, sparking international outrage and discrediting the Chinese people.
They exploited human weaknesses to recruit accomplices, taking advantage of regulatory gaps in various countries to profit; their "success" was built on the suffering of countless people, inhumanely victimised, allowing them to ascend the ladder.
Although the image of a people ultimately depends on the integrity, hard work, and intelligence of the majority of its citizens, these extreme cases are a sign of the collapse of moral restraints and the disintegration of ethical defences.
Qian Zhimin was born in September 1978 in Rugao, Jiangsu. In 2014, she founded Lantian Gerui Electronics Technology Co. in Tianjin, using the lure of high interest rates and the promise of "wealth for three generations" to orchestrate a 43-billion yuan Ponzi scheme. After converting the money into Bitcoin, she fled.
According to British police, after seven years on the run in the United Kingdom, she was arrested in April 2024 and sentenced to 11 years and 8 months in prison on 11 November of that year.
She had purchased 61,000 Bitcoin and attempted to exploit legal differences between various countries regarding extradition, asset confiscation, and cryptocurrency regulation to build her own legal "free zone," making her capture much harder.
The number of her victims in China tops 128,000 people, mostly senior citizens; the much-vaunted Chinese motto "whoever offends us will be punished, wherever they are" rings terribly hollow here.
Zhang Zhidong was born in Beijing in 1987. After graduating from Peking University with a degree in languages, he moved to Mexico in 2015. Since 2016, under the alias Brother Wang, he has become the main coordinator of chemical precursor purchases and drug production for Mexico’s two largest cartels. He procured raw materials from Asia and supervised the synthesis of fentanyl.
Under his direction, tonnes of cocaine, fentanyl, and methamphetamine were exported and distributed. In 2018, he began directing exports to North America, generating annual revenues of US$ 150 million.
He ran more than 150 legal entities and 170 bank accounts, using shell companies and multi-layered structures to launder money into cryptocurrencies and other assets. In October 2024, Mexican police arrested his right-hand man, Li Ruipeng.
Zhi Dong Zhang was arrested shortly thereafter, but in July of this year, while under house arrest, he incredibly managed to escape by digging a tunnel, then fleeing to Russia and Cuba under a false identity. On 23 October, he was captured in Cuba and extradited to Mexico and the United States.
His trial began on 19 November before the Federal Court for the Eastern District of New York. If convicted of international drug trafficking and money laundering, he faces life in prison.
Born in 1988 in Lianjiang (Fujian), Chen Zhi moved to Cambodia in 2009. In less than six years, he founded the Prince Group, a conglomerate of businesses operating in real estate, finance, hotels, casinos, and supermarkets, becoming the largest group in the country, with subsidiaries apparently in more than 30 countries.
In China, Chen had offices in several cities, and was repeatedly celebrated as "Entrepreneur of the Year" and a "model of social responsibility."
According to independent investigations, however, the Prince Group has emerged as Cambodia's largest criminal organisation: scams, human trafficking, drug trafficking, and forced labour, with initially Chinese as its main victims. When China intensified its crackdown on online fraud, the group shifted its focus to foreigners.
In October 2025, South Korea even sent officials to Cambodia to free hostages; on 14 October 2025, the US Department of Justice (DoJ) announced the seizure of 127.271 million bitcoins belonging to Chen Zhi, something worth US$ 15 billion.
According to the DoJ, the core business consisted of "pig-butchering scams" and wire fraud; two sites alone operated 1,250 phones and controlled 76,000 social media accounts used for scams. The group raked in up to US$ 30 million a day.
From January 2020 to February 2024, online fraud originating from Cambodia defrauded the world of approximately US$ 75 billion. Following the United States, the United Kingdom, South Korea, Singapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Thailand have also frozen or closed down the group's subsidiaries.
These are shocking crimes, and all the perpetrators are Chinese, raised in the era of reform and openness. None of them hesitated to base their "success" on the ruin of others.
To these three "famous people”, we must also add the "Chinese ladies" around the world who flaunt their own aesthetics, the arrogant "children of the rich," the "kept mistresses" who live in villas that cover entire neighbourhoods . . . all figures who continue to shape the global perception of the Chinese.
A missionary nun in Chad and Uganda told me that it is not just Chinese products that are flooding local markets, but also slot machines owned by Chinese entrepreneurs and installed them in villages (see picture). Every time this nun sees the local poor gambling away the only coins they have, she feels anger and sadness.
In our textbooks, the Opium War of two centuries ago is presented as a national tragedy, proof that “weakness leads to humiliation”. Today we are rich and strong, yet why do we lack empathy and persist in exporting "gambling, prostitution, and drugs" to other countries?
In a rationale that exalts "power from the barrel of a gun”, success, wealth, and privilege have become supreme goals.
The elites enjoy a power that transcends law and morality; slogans like "it doesn't matter if the cat is black or white, as long as it catches mice," "overtake on curves”, and other bizarre phrases have infiltrated our collective mindset. In a climate where the end justifies the means, unethical and unlawful acts proliferate.
In stark contrast to the race for technology and wealth is the systemic lack of humanistic education and critical thinking. Atheistic brainwashing and ideological indoctrination have reduced the meaning of life to material success alone.
Kant argued that belief in the immortality of the soul was a prerequisite for morality and happiness; atheistic materialism has demolished this bulwark, leaving individuals without internal restraints.
For many criminals, sacrificing morality thus becomes a "rational choice" in the risk-benefit calculus, and intelligence becomes a weapon for evil.
The same "warrior wolf diplomacy," with its external aggression and rigid internal control, fuels opportunism within and outside China – for personal success, anything goes, even defying international rules.
This even gives criminals a psychological sense of privilege and impunity, committing atrocities shamelessly, hoping for luck, with no respect for the law.
Contempt for the dignity of human life, a universal value, is the root of Chen, Zhang, and Qian's insane enrichment, and it is also the rationale behind some Chinese entrepreneurs installing slot machines in the poorest areas of Africa, exploiting every opportunity to profit.
In specific social and cultural contexts, moral collapse is not an isolated incident, but the inevitable consequence of systemic flaws.
The exaggeration of wealth, power, and populism is not just propaganda; it is a deeply internalised social Darwinian value system.
If a society places power and money above morality, law, and respect for universal values, it will inevitably generate criminals who build their success on the violation of human dignity and the global order.
This is why we Chinese must wake up. Let us address the moral collapse we are exporting to the world and the international image we are creating; let us rebuild ethical foundations and respect for universal values. Only by respecting ourselves can we earn the respect of others.
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