Thousands protest over ant aphrodisiac scheme

Thousands protest over ant aphrodisiac scheme
An ant crawls on its colony's hive in Roccafluvione, Italy, September 1, 2006. Thousands of people in northeastern China have protested on the streets and surrounded government offices demanding help recovering money from a get-rich-quick scheme to raise ants to make an aphrodisiac tonic. (Daniele La Monaca/Reuters)BEIJING (Reuters) - Thousands of people in northeasternChina have protested on the streets and surrounded governmentoffices demanding help recovering money from a get-rich-quickscheme to raise ants to make an aphrodisiac tonic.
Hundreds of anti-riot troops and police in Shenyang,capital of Liaoning province, were deployed to stop protestersreaching the provincial government and Communist Partyheadquarters, residents said on Wednesday.
The irate investors from across Liaoning, a rustbeltprovince striving to attract investment, have demonstrated inShenyang since Monday and sporadic clashes with police havebroken out, they said.
Several thousand protesters gathered near the provincialgovernment offices on Wednesday, a resident told Reuters bytelephone.
The investors -- many of them laid-off workers or farmers-- put their savings into Shenyang's Yilishen Group for ascheme in which they raised ants to provide ingredients for ahealth tonic promising an aphrodisiac boost.
For every 10,000 yuan ($1,350) they paid the company as"deposit," investors were promised a dividend of 3,250 yuan.
The tonic was promoted on television by Zhao Benshan, thecountry's best-known comic who specializes in playing innocentbumpkins with a northeastern twang.
But since October, the group has twice delayed payment ofdividends, fuelling investor fears that it was on the brink ofbankruptcy or that the government might have frozen its funds.
"We strongly demand the government offer a way out forYilishen!" read a banner held by protesters as they marchedalong a Shenyang street. A photo of the banner was posted onInternet and blog sites.
China has seen rising protests from farmers and disgruntledworkers as inequality and corruption stoke popular resentment
The unusual origin of this latest uproar was a reminderthat even as China's economy booms, there are pitfalls that canspark discontent from citizens eager for a share of wealth.
Chinese media have said the scheme collected more than 10billion yuan from hundreds of thousands of Liaoning residents.
USELESS RUSE?
Some local reports have said the ants were a useless rusefor an illegal scam, but the group has survived several probesin the past eight years and investors had previously receivedtheir dividends on time, protesters said.
As they looked for reassurance, panicked investors haveturned their ire on the government.
"If Yilishen goes bankrupt, the government will be thechief culprit," said a message that appeared briefly ondomestic Chinese Web sites before it was removed. "Thegovernment will be drinking our blood."
A Shenyang resident told Reuters that about 1,000 peoplehad collected in front of the company's head office onWednesday. Repeated calls to the office by Reuters wentunanswered.
Investors said the group's good relations with thegovernment and its commercials on state television hadconvinced them Yilishen was legitimate."It has been out there for eight years and the governmenthas given the company and the manager so many honors. Wethought there mustn't be any problem," investor Li Dechun toldReuters.He said he had poured more than 200,000 yuan into thescheme.A spokesman for the Liaoning provincial government saidofficials had been talking to the protesters, and the company'sfailure to pay dividends was not due to any government action."Most of the investors are from the lower class of society.Some have threatened to take more radical actions, such asblocking trains at the railway station," a local residentsurnamed Cong told Reuters.Online discussions about the protests and the ant schemewere quickly removed from Web sites, as were recent newsreports about Yilishen. The Group's Web site was also shut,announcing "service unavailable."