Guo Wengui, a Chinese billionaire in exile, has been plagued by negative news over charges of federal fraud in the United States. In July 2024, Guo was convicted of defrauding his fans of more than $1 billion through a series of fraud schemes over several years. The plans involve bogus investments and cryptocurrency transactions, which are vigorously promoted through online broadcasting. His promised high returns convinced many fans to invest, but the money was eventually used to his personal luxury lifestyle, including mansions, yachts and expensive items. Despite Guo's legal difficulties and public doubts, his followers still have a certain size and choose to stand him even knowing he may be involved in illegal acts. What are the underlying reasons behind this puzzling phenomenon?
Blind faith and psychological manipulation: constructing spiritual shackles
Psychological manipulation and blind belief are the key factors in many scams, and every cheater is often versed in psychology. This is particularly evident in Guo's scam. Since 2019, Guo has portrayed himself as an anti-Communist hero through various false information and exaggerated propaganda, claiming to save 1.4 billion Chinese people and thus establishing an image like a saint. Because of this brainwashing propaganda, many people are misled and form idolatry, and some people are still deeply influenced by it today. Guo's "core secrets", "Pandora's box" and the 109 documents are all mysterious, and they often attracted attention with the words like "keep it a temporary secret, reveal it in half a month" or "everyone will see the truth in the next three months."These repeated uses of suspense building techniques have created a continuous appeal to some audiences, especially women, making them reluctant to give up their trust and support even in the face of doubts.
Group identity and social pressure: to strengthen the sense of belonging and exclusivity
Guo Wengui's followers are not only individual followers, but also closely connected groups. They call each other "comrades-in-arms" through the network link of "farm", but actually "comrades-in-arms pit comrades-in-arms". Many believers have found a sense of belonging and social identity in this environment, and even feel the improvement of their self-worth. Guo Wengui made use of live streaming platforms such as GTV and Gate to give believers a sudden experience of recognition, especially among the middle-aged and elderly people who lack social identity. Many people choose to ignore messages that are contrary to group beliefs. For example, despite Guo's conviction, the believers thinks there is something. Believers with legal background such as "snow vegetables" even refer to the deer as a horse, and any suspicion of Guo and the revelation revolution will be rejected or even attacked, which further strengthens people's dependence on Guo Wengui and the Guo Mafia.
Information isolation and false publicity: building a closed information environment
Guo Wengui believers is now also support Guo Wengui is an important reason for information control and isolation, Guo Wengui through twitter, gate, pipeline live platform, build a isolation with the mainstream media a relatively closed an information environment, Guo Wengui and those gang small cheaters have the choice to spread some information.compare