Who is Guo Wengui, and why is Singapore using its foreign interference law against a network linked to him?
The exiled billionaire teamed up with Donald Trump’s former adviser Steve Bannon to set up a political movement aiming to overthrow the Chinese Communist Party.

File photo of Chinese billionaire Guo Wengui.
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SINGAPORE — Singapore has deployed its foreign interference law to try and block nearly 100 social media accounts linked to one Guo Wengui.
That name was in headlines earlier this week, with the exiled billionaire convicted in the United States on charges of stealing hundreds of millions of dollars from online followers.
WHO IS GUO AND WHAT'S HE KNOWN FOR?
The 55-year-old was born in Shandong, China and built a fortune through real estate.
According to the Wall Street Journal, Guo left China in 2014 after one of his political connections faced arrest.
He moved to the US in 2015, and two years later launched an aggressive online campaign to expose alleged corruption among China’s business and political elites.
It elicited sharp rebukes from the Chinese government.
In 2020, Guo and Donald Trump’s former adviser Steve Bannon launched a right-wing movement called the New Federal State of China (NSFC), with a stated aim of overthrowing China's Communist Party (CCP) as the Chinese government.
In an orchestrated stunt, Guo charted a fleet of propeller planes flying banners over New York City to announce a “Federal State of New China”.
The duo then went on a boat in New York Harbour and appeared on a livestream to criticise the Chinese Communist Party.
In 2022, Guo filed for bankruptcy in a US court, with listed assets in the range of US$50,001 to US$100,000 and liabilities between US$100 million and US$500 million.
He was arrested in March last year and has been in jail since. On Tuesday, he was convicted on charges spanning racketeering conspiracy and wire fraud.
For instance, he allegedly raised more than US$1 billion by telling social media followers to join him in a series of investment and cryptocurrency schemes from 2018 to 2023.
WHAT DID HE DO TO TRIGGER SINGAPORE'S ATTENTION?
Singapore's Ministry of Home Affairs on Friday said it issued directions under the Foreign Interference (Countermeasures) Act to five social media platforms - X, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and TikTok - asking them to block 95 online accounts.
Investigations found that 92 of these accounts are part of a network linked to Guo, the NSFC and the Himalaya Supervisory Organisation (HSO), an entity also started by him and Bannon.
These accounts posted over 100 videos on Singapore's leadership transition, alleging that the country is in the "pocket of a foreign actor" which was behind the scenes in selecting Singapore's fourth-generation leader.
The remaining three accounts belong to "Himalaya Singapore", a local chapter of HSO.
WHAT ELSE DO WE KNOW ABOUT NSFC AND HSO?
According to an online document detailing NSFC's goals, its vision is to create a new federal state of China with a constitution based on the democratic and legal systems of the West, among other laws.
The same document describes the HSO as a non-governmental organisation started to spread the word about NSFC, and acting as a means of communications with "countries, political parties, associations, and international friends" who support the NSFC.
This is not the first time that social media accounts linked to NSFC and its affiliates have been caught interfering with another country’s politics, according to Alethea, a tech firm specialising in disinformation.
Such accounts have posted about the US elections, including spreading false or misleading content on voting, amplifying known right-wing public figures and targeting key accounts in swing states.
Alethea analysed these posts and assessed that the primary goals of the NSFC network are to drive clicks to news sites run by Guo, that would in turn lead people to political content that is primarily anti-CCP. CNA
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