motto was: “you must live in the dreams of others.”
Control
Most members of Create Abundance initially joined via introduc-
tions from their friends and relatives. They came to seek help when
they faced difficulties in life including poor marital relationships,
business collapse or psychological problems. The majority of its mem-
bers were female office workers, bosses of private companies, leaders
in overseas companies and even government officials.
Create Abundance promoted itself through public lectures and
taster classes. These events were presented by the heads of each study
centre and most were free. The lectures centred on activities including
tea ceremonies, image planning, parent-child relations, corporation
management and wealth accumulation.
During experience classes, all participants were required to follow
the tutors in loud chanting of slogans to shake off their bad moods.
If a participant hesitated, the other students offered a helping hand
through hugs and invitations to dinner to help change their minds.
According to Ni Huan, associate lecturer at the Communication
University of China, it is easy to foster a unanimous crowd mood
when a lecture is held in a closed and exciting environment. She said
that when alone, a person will have sound judgment, but when be-
ing placed within a lively crowd, a person is likely to get lost and be
easily influenced and misguided by others. “When tutors said some-
thing, students were induced to give a positive reply, which is a kind
of brainwashing,” she said.
Wang Fengyao (pseudonym) joined Create Abundance with
the hope of improving the health of her family and self. Both her
father and child were in poor health and she paid 500,000 yuan
(US$72,600) to become a senior member which entitled her oppor-
tunities of direct communication with Zhang. Wang’s father, how-
ever, did not get better even after receiving the special long-distance
treatment from Zhang.
“We were told that as long as we could change ourselves, everything
will get better,” Wang said. “If not, it is because we failed to transform
ourselves first.”
At Create Abundance, members are required to regularly exchange
their “life miracles,” the good things that happened to them and sto-
ries of their spiritual enrichment. They are discouraged from raising
any questions because at the institution, doubt is considered negative
energy. A senior member of Create Abundance told our reporter on
condition of anonymity that her level in the company was degraded
when she raised a question after finding the promises made by Zhang
went unmet.
Wealth
Zhang has a clear classification structure for her members. First of
all, she selected 30 rich members to be tutors, the highest level in the
organisation. These people had to pay a membership fee of 30 mil-
lion yuan (US$4.36m) and each was in charge of the business for an
entire province. In addition, a principal would be recruited to run
each of the 53 study centres, at the cost of 8 million yuan (US$1.2m)
on average. Below that, 500,000 to 1 million yuan (US$72,600 to
145,000) is the basic threshold to become a supervisor and 50,000
yuan (US$7,260) is the minimum charge for each ordinary member.
“Zhang Xinyue told us that the more we paid, the more energy we
will get and the higher the rank we attain will be,” Wang Wei told
ChinaReport. She said that a tutor is actually a provincial agent who
could hire new members by themselves. Zhang pledged that each
tutor will get compensation of 3 million yuan (US$436,000) when
they open a new study centre. On average, each study centre sells 100
membership cards and each tutor will get a kickback of 10,000 yuan
(US$1,450) from each. Zhang said that it is not a commercial venture
and the money involved is called the “gratitude fund.”
But not all the senior-ranking employees get any money back on
time. “If you pay 500,000 yuan (US$72,600) to become a supervisor,
Zhang will not give the refund instantly and will promise instead to
buy investment funds with the money and pay you back with double
the return,” said Yang Li, head of a study centre in Wuhan, Hubei
Province.
In May 2015, Zhao Xia (pseudonym) paid over 3 million yuan
(US$436,000) in total to become head of a study centre in a medium-
sized city and recruited a number of students, but the scant refund
from Zhang failed even to meet the daily running fees of the rented
office, according to a report in People’s Daily. In 2016 Zhao embarked
on a quest to claim her rights.
Wang Fengyao told ChinaReport that the shiny faces of senior
members have a tarnished flip side as many people were trapped in
excessive consumption trying to maintain their exemplary lifestyles.
She said that some tutors even sold their flats to become senior mem-
bers and the overseas study trips organised by Create Abundance were
much more expensive than those of tour companies.
Some senior members had to drop out thanks to the heavy debts
incurred. Zhang, however, offered no helping hand and instead
pushed the members to expand their way of making money includ-
ing borrowing money from their parents and friends, and even getting
loans from banks.
The study centres nationwide are mostly registered as cultural com-
panies which lack the credentials to offer training. To date, the total
amount of training fees has reached 1 billion yuan (US$145m) but
not a single official receipt was given to members. Our reporter tried
to contact the company for interview but found all the contact lists
on its official website had been deleted. All eight core members of the
organisation have emigrated to other countries.
In August 2016, the Industrial and Commercial Bureau of Cha-
oyang District, Beijing, began to investigate three offices of Create
Abundance within the district for alleged illegal operations and spiri-
tual pyramid selling and more than 20 study centres nationwide have
since suspended their operations.
The official Weibo account of Create Abundance has not been up-
dated since its last post on July 29, 2016. The silence has generated
public outcry with dozens of frustrated commentators using the ac-
count as a place to publicly vent their anger, leave complaints and
other examples of “negative energy.”