Recently, a well-known basketball education institution in China, “Eastern Enlightening Star”, has closed multiple campuses nationwide, leaving them deserted, sparking concerns of a possible financial scandal. Many parents of students are owed varying amounts of tuition fees, ranging from thousands to tens of thousands of Chinese Yuan. Employees at the closed Guangzhou campus of the institution have reported unpaid wages. Several parents have already visited the institution’s headquarters in Guangzhou to demand refunds of their tuition fees.
Eastern Enlightening Star has over twenty teaching points in Guangzhou, spread across various districts of the city. The institution has been operating in Guangzhou for many years and has a high level of recognition with a large number of students.
On May 15, the Beijing headquarters of Eastern Enlightening Star posted a notice stating that they were temporarily closing due to “operational adjustments and facility maintenance”, with employees transitioning to remote work. However, they did not specify when operations would resume. Following this announcement, campuses in Guangzhou, Wuhan, Qingdao, and other cities have also suspended classes.
According to a report by “China Business News” on May 25, a parent of a student at the Shenzhen branch of Eastern Enlightening Star Basketball Training (Longhua Campus) named Ms. Qi participated in a group purchase activity with the institution last year during the “618” shopping festival. She paid 12,000 yuan for a package of 100 classes but has only attended 17 classes as the institution ceased operations.
Ms. Qi mentioned that the person in charge of the institution’s group suddenly announced on April 20 that due to operational issues at the campus, they needed to temporarily suspend classes. The person in charge also mentioned in the group chat that once classes resumed, they would compensate accordingly. However, as of now, Ms. Qi has not received a clear compensation plan.
Another parent, Mr. Chen, mentioned that earlier this year he spent over ten thousand yuan to enroll his child in basketball classes at the Meixiang Campus of Eastern Enlightening Star Basketball Training in Shenzhen. Recently, the campus ceased operations without prior notice. When he registered and paid the fee, he purchased a course of 60 classes with 17 additional classes as a gift. However, during the refund process, they were informed that the gifted classes would not factor into the refund calculation, and each class would be refunded at 60% of the payment amount, requiring a lengthy refund process of at least 2 to 3 months.
Many parents of the Guangzhou training class of Eastern Enlightening Star have expressed that they have pre-paid varying amounts of tuition fees, yet many classes have not been attended or accounted for as the institution suddenly announced the suspension of classes. Currently, many parents have formed groups to discuss refunding their fees, and as of the morning of May 21, the involved amounts total in the millions.
Reports indicate that on the morning of May 21, visits were made to several campuses of Eastern Enlightening Star such as Huanyu Tiandi, Binjiang East Road, and Tianhe Hui, all of which were found deserted and closed, with no signs of business operations. Apart from the unreturned course fees of numerous parents, the institution’s employees have also reported wage delays.
On the afternoon of May 21, many parents gathered at the Guangzhou headquarters of Eastern Enlightening Star located in the Tianhe District’s Zhihui PARK to demand refunds of their tuition fees. The institutions stated, “Promise to refund by May 31, 2025.”
However, some parents remain skeptical and fear that the institution might offer empty promises.
On May 17, the founder of Eastern Enlightening Star, Jin Xing, publicly apologized in a video acknowledging the interruptions in courses and wage delays at some campuses due to operational adjustments. He promised that the institution would not abscond with the money.
Jin Xing stated that he had mortgaged all his assets, borrowed money, and injected 20 million yuan into the company in an attempt to sustain operations. However, due to Jin Xing’s lack of explanation about the management loopholes and use of pre-paid funds, failure to disclose the debt size, and concrete solutions, he was criticized for avoiding addressing the core issues. He attributed the operational failures partly to being “slandered”; a move questioned as diverting attention from the mismanagement issues.
Industry insiders believe that the prepayment model used by training institutions has regulatory loopholes. Relevant departments lack effective real-time supervision of the financial usage and operational status of training institutions, making it difficult to detect and correct issues promptly when they arise.