Li Xiang, Zhao Wei, Huang Youlong: The Collapse of a Cross-Border Black Gold Chain!
From Last Straw News:
On the evening of November 12, 2025, a civilian airliner landed at Nanjing Lukou International Airport. After the cabin door opened, a handcuffed, dejected man was escorted down the steps by bailiffs—he was She Zhijiang, the mastermind behind the "Asia-Pacific New City" telecom fraud park in Myawaddy, Myanmar, which had long been entrenched in the area. This day not only marked the official collapse of a cross-border criminal empire involving over 100 billion RMB, but also unveiled the tip of the iceberg of another hidden network: this network, woven from blood ties, capital, identity, and trust, involved public figures such as Zhao Wei, Huang Youlong, and Li Xiang. Its sophisticated operation and complete chain were shocking.
Shared Roots: The "Grassroots Beginning" of the Shaodong Cousins
. According to a 2025 on-site investigation by *China Business Journal*, She Zhijiang's mother and Huang Youlong's mother were sisters, both born in Shetianqiao Town, Shaodong County, Hunan Province, their hometowns only 500 meters apart. They both attended local middle schools but dropped out in the second year, entering the workforce early. In the late 1990s, they mingled in the gray areas of Shaodong County, even becoming apprentices of a local "big brother," Zhao Shihe. After Zhao Shihe was executed for murder in 1996, the two brothers fled in haste, their lives diverging: Huang Youlong went south to Shenzhen, later moving to Macau and Singapore; She Zhijiang moved with his parents to Guangxi, later seeking a living in Southeast Asia.
The turning point came in 2005. According to multiple sources, Huang Youlong, having accumulated some capital, provided his cousin She Zhijiang with start-up funds for his development in the Philippines. This money became the first stepping stone for She Zhijiang's involvement in online gambling and subsequent construction of his telecom fraud empire. A "Money Laundering Channel" Under the Celebrity Spotlight: In 2009, Huang Youlong married Zhao Wei, a marriage of a "movie star marrying a tycoon" that was once considered a celebrated story in the entertainment industry. However, looking back at the flow of funds, this marriage seemed more like a "credit endorsement" tailor-made for laundering illicit funds.
Police investigations revealed that since 2010, 23 offshore companies registered in the British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, and other locations suddenly appeared under Huang Youlong's name. These companies had no actual business, no employees, and no office space; their sole function was to receive illicit funds from Southeast Asia. The illicit funds flowed into Hong Kong through underground banks, and then were transferred layer by layer through offshore structures, ultimately being injected into Zhao Wei's assets under the guise of "investment returns," "art collections," and "wine brand operations."
Zhao Wei's HK$350 million Mid-Levels mansion, €4 million Bordeaux winery, and Picasso paintings, while seemingly glamorous, actually served as "safe havens" for illicit funds. Crucially, these assets were all registered under Zhao Wei's name, creating a legal barrier between her and Huang Youlong—allowing her to claim "ignorance" or "personal income" should trouble arise. In this chain, Li Xiang's role was far from that of a mere "bystander," but rather a deeply embedded key figure. Li Xiang: From "Variety Queen" to "Money Laundering White Glove"
Li Xiang's relationship with Zhao Wei went far beyond "friends in the entertainment industry." According to several former employees of Hunan Broadcasting System, the two established contact in the mid-2000s through joint investment in film and television projects. Around 2010, when Zhao Wei and Huang Youlong began to develop the cultural industry, Li Xiang participated in early capital operation meetings as an "advisor." During Zhao Wei's high-profile acquisition of Wan Jia Culture in 2013, Li Xiang, through her controlled "Beijing Happy Star Culture Communication Co., Ltd.", provided media resource matching services for Zhao Wei's team.
More importantly, Li Xiang and Huang Youlong have an indirect shareholding connection. In 2015, Li Xiang and Wang Yuelun jointly established "Mango Interactive Entertainment Fund" (an unregistered private equity fund). This fund briefly held a 10% stake in a Hong Kong SPV company, whose other shareholder was "Dragon Sky Holdings Ltd.", a BVI company controlled by Huang Youlong. Although this structure was dismantled in 2016, it shows that the three parties had already established a capital-level collaboration. Abnormal Consumption and Funding Gap: Since 2014, Li Xiang's annual personal foreign exchange purchase quota has remained stable at US$350,000 (the annual limit for Chinese citizens), but her actual overseas expenditures far exceed this amount: Luxury Goods Purchases: Between 2018 and 2023, Li Xiang and her daughter Wang Shiling spent over 8 million yuan annually in Paris, London, Milan, and other places; Education Expenses: During Wang Shiling's time at Burnett School in the UK, the annual cost was approximately £700,000 (about 6 million yuan); Art Transactions: In 2021, one of Wang Shiling's watercolor paintings was sold for 980,000 yuan to the Cayman Islands' "Art Horizon Fund"; in 2024, her painting "Peach" was sold for 1.45 million yuan—all of these buyers had financial transactions with accounts associated with She Zhijiang.
These large expenditures were never paid directly through Li Xiang's own bank account, but were instead advanced by multiple offshore companies, third-party nominees, or "friends," forming a typical "money laundering" path. Shell Company Matrix: Money Laundering Tools for Quick Establishment and Dissolution. As of the end of 2025, Li Xiang had 21 affiliated companies, 15 of which had been deregistered, a deregistration rate of 71.4%.
Typical examples include: "Mango Innovation" (Shenzhen): registered in August 2025 and deregistered in November, with a registered capital of 5 million yuan and no social security or tax records; "Xiangya Brand Management" (Shanghai): received a $2 million transfer from Singapore's "Golden Maple Ltd.", which is associated with Huang Youlong; and "Jin Kaiyan Film & Television" (Hunan): established in August 2025, holding 99% of the shares, but with no film or television filings or shooting records. These companies generally exhibit characteristics of "quick establishment and dissolution, no paid-in capital, no employees, and large cross-border transactions," conforming to the "shell company money laundering tool" model commonly used by underground banks. Live Streaming E-commerce: Covering Cash Flow?
From 2020 to 2023, Li Xiang made a high-profile foray into live streaming e-commerce, claiming "annual sales of 1.5 billion yuan." However, multiple investigations revealed that her livestreaming room had a return rate consistently above 60%, and several partner brands were exposed for fraudulent order practices. Industry analysts believe that for Li Xiang, the primary function of livestreaming was not profit, but rather to create "legitimate business revenue" to explain the frequent large inflows into her accounts. Extradition Storm: Dominoes Fall One After Another In August 2022, She Zhijiang was arrested in Bangkok, Thailand. For the next three years, he vehemently opposed extradition through his legal team, but Sino-Thai law enforcement cooperation continued to advance. In October 2025, the Thai Court of Appeal ruled in favor of extradition; on November 10, the Supreme Prosecutor's Office formally approved it; on November 12, She Zhijiang was extradited back to China and arrested by the Zhenjiang Public Security Bureau in Jiangsu Province.
On the day of the extradition, a storm erupted: Zhao Wei's equity in three companies, including "Longwei Media," was frozen, totaling 15.9 million yuan. This was the first large-scale asset freeze since she was blacklisted in 2019, and it directly targeted entities she co-owned with Huang Youlong. Huang Youlong: In mid-November, two of his luxury homes in Singapore were urgently listed for sale at 20% below market value; several offshore companies under his control began to be deregistered, involving more than 500 million yuan. In December, his Hong Kong bank accounts were frozen, amounting to approximately 200 million yuan; on January 12, 2026, he was restricted from leaving the country, and his Singaporean citizenship was not exempted.
Li Xiang: On November 16, "Mango Innovation" was suddenly deregistered (registered for only 3 months); all live broadcasts ceased in early December; from December 20, a "Do Not Follow" message appeared on Weibo, and she disappeared from Douyin search results; on January 10, 2026, all her accounts on all platforms were banned; on January 18, the UK froze her London apartment mortgage account, and $30 million was transferred from her Cayman Islands fund. Meanwhile, Zhao Wei's business empire came to a complete standstill: on December 10, her "Prince Culture Communication" was listed as operating abnormally; on December 30, her personal wine live stream was instantly banned; and a total of over 18.5 million yuan of equity was frozen, with the guarantor pointing directly to companies controlled by Huang Youlong.
The Logic of Liquidation: Why Did Li Xiang Become a Key Target? According to sources close to the investigating authorities, Li Xiang was chosen as a key target for three reasons: High overlap in the funding chain: Her offshore accounts receiving funds were identical to the "Hunan-Hong Kong-Southeast Asia" channel used by She Zhijiang's telecom fraud group for money laundering; Typical "white glove" role: Annual spending of 30-50 million yuan was a moderate amount, unlikely to trigger anti-money laundering warnings, yet effectively able to absorb illicit funds; Significant social influence: As a former mainstream media host, her behavior had a demonstrative effect, and failure to address it would severely damage public trust in the financial order. She Zhijiang's telecom fraud group illegally profited over 100 billion yuan, requiring numerous "white gloves" to disperse the funds. Li Xiang's annual spending of 30-40 million yuan and Zhao Wei's capital operations of over 1 billion yuan were considered "safe small amounts" by underground banks, perfectly suited to the matching scheme.
The Moment of Liquidation: There is no "lawless zone." She Zhijiang's arrest was not only a punishment for a telecom fraud ringleader, but also a systemic liquidation of the entire "black money-white glove" chain. The core logic of this chain lies in using the social credit of public figures to package illicit gains as "legitimate wealth" and evade regulation through offshore structures, shell companies, and art transactions. However, with the improvement of China's cross-border law enforcement capabilities, the deepening of international judicial cooperation (such as the implementation of the China-Thailand extradition treaty), and the increased sensitivity of financial regulators to behaviors such as "abnormal consumption," "high-frequency account cancellations," and "offshore penetration," this "smooth" money laundering model is no longer sustainable.
As one investigator said, "They thought that by changing their nationality, hiding their assets, and severing ties, they could get away scot-free. But they forgot that the source of the money is blood, and blood debts must eventually be repaid." From a dropout in a small town in Shaodong to a "local tyrant" in Myawaddy; from a "female version of Buffett" in the capital market to a "tainted artist" banned across the internet; from a variety show queen to having her overseas accounts frozen—this collapse, which began with family ties, culminated in greed, and ended in the law, reveals a cruel reality: in an era of increasingly stringent rule of law, any crime that attempts to use "identity," "fame," or "nationality" as a shield will ultimately have nowhere to hide. Li Xiang has remained silent to this day. But her silence cannot conceal the irrefutable evidence of the fund's flow, nor can it hinder the progress of the legal process. Heaven may be silent, but it is never absent.