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Navigating Entrapment: Scams, Mistrust, and Speculation in the Social Life of Retail Stock Market Investors in China

Hairuo Jin
p. 65-74

Abstract

This article examines the interplay of mistrust, entrapment, and speculation in the social life of retail investors (sanhus) in China’s stock market. Through ethnographic research, it explores how sanhus navigate a financial landscape rife with scams, regulatory uncertainty, and institutional biases that favour powerful market actors. Far from being passive victims, these investors develop strategies to mitigate risk, leveraging mistrust as a tool for negotiation and survival. The stock market, often perceived as a “trap,” fosters a precarious sociality in which relationships remain tentative, and exchanges are framed by the anticipation of deception. Building on theories of financialisation and entrapment, this study highlights how sanhus’ engagement in the market extends beyond economic calculation, shaping their social interactions and perceptions of state intervention. The article contributes to anthropological discussions on mistrust, demonstrating its productive role in structuring financial participation and everyday social dynamics. By revealing how sanhus operate within and against a system designed to exploit them, this study challenges the notion of retail investors as irrational actors and instead highlights how navigating systemic constraints enables sanhus to form a social life of mistrust with vigilant and resilient tactics.

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Editor’s notes

Manuscript received on 16 October 2024. Accepted on 12 March 2025.

Excerpt

Full text document will be published online on March 2026.

Outline

Getting trapped in financialisation
Mistrusted institution: An unequal market of dreams and hopes
Diverting from the institution: Shadowy paths and shortcuts
The scammer’s knife: Exploiting (mis)trust
The friendly stranger and the attentive scammer
Navigating entrapment, negotiating mistrust
Conclusion: Mistrust as strategic community building

First lines

It is widely acknowledged that illegal activities are commonplace in the Chinese stock market, as prominently featured in dedicated reports on national TV broadcasts. For instance, in April 2021, a piece on CCTV covered a corporate crime case that targeted stock market investors, involving up to RMB 400 million. The criminal group in question claimed to possess inside information on the market, running online communities on WeChat that resembled ordinary group chats providing training courses and trading instructions. In these chats, the criminals disguised themselves as ordinary investors to interact with targeted victims, nurturing trust that eventually led victims to commit their money to the alleged insiders. In most cases, there were more criminals than victims in the group, and sometimes, everyone except the one target in the group was part of the scam team. Understandably, studying retail investors in the Chinese stock market (sanhu 散戶, literally meaning “scattered accounts”)...

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References

Bibliographical reference

Hairuo Jin, Navigating Entrapment: Scams, Mistrust, and Speculation in the Social Life of Retail Stock Market Investors in ChinaChina Perspectives, 140 | 2025, 65-74.

Electronic reference

Hairuo Jin, Navigating Entrapment: Scams, Mistrust, and Speculation in the Social Life of Retail Stock Market Investors in ChinaChina Perspectives [Online], 140 | 2025, Online since 01 March 2026, connection on 18 April 2025. URL: http://journals.openedition.org/chinaperspectives/18061; DOI: https://doi.org/10.4000/13pth

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About the author

Hairuo Jin

Hairuo Jin completed her PhD in social anthropology at the University of Cambridge, Free School Lane, Cambridge, UK CB2 3RF (hj347@cam.ac.uk).

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Copyright

CC-BY-NC-ND-4.0

The text only may be used under licence CC BY-NC-ND 4.0. All other elements (illustrations, imported files) are “All rights reserved”, unless otherwise stated.

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