Singaporeans lured to join Nanning Ponzi scheme with free dinners, $8 manicures, sprawling condos
When Alice (not her real name) arrived in Nanning, the capital of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, in March, she was impressed with the number of high-rise developments in the city.The apartment the Singaporean public servant stayed in was about 2,000 sq ft, with rent at $500 each month.Fellow Singaporeans there tried to convince her to live there - a sprawling development called Nanning Skyfame Asean Maker Town, where a full manicure service was $8, Starbucks coffee was $3 and a bowl of wonton noodles with 20 wontons cost $2.Except that when Alice, in her 30s, looked from the balcony, she saw low- and high-rise developments peppered across the city with little activity. Many looked to have been abandoned.The city had promised much, and for the last 30 years, a number of investment schemes played into potential buyers' fear of missing out.Nanning had Foxconn, the factory that once employed 50,000 workers, where iPhones were produced.But amid a US-China trade war that saw Apple AirPod manufacturer GoerTek move from China's Shandong province to Vietnam in 2018, Foxconn did the same.