Legal analysis: not illegal. There is no short-selling mechanism in China stock market, but there are short-selling mechanisms in US stock market and all futures markets, spot markets and stock index futures. The so-called short-selling mechanism is to sell at a high level when the market falls, and then buy and transfer at a low level, so the arbitrage price difference is not illegal.

Legal basis: According to Article 182 of the Criminal Law of People's Republic of China (PRC), whoever manipulates the securities and futures markets under any of the following circumstances, if the circumstances are serious, shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not more than five years or criminal detention and shall also or only be fined; If the circumstances are especially serious, he shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not less than five years but not more than ten years, and shall also be fined:

(1) Individually or in collusion, concentrating capital advantages, holding shares or positions, or using information advantages to jointly or continuously buy and sell, and manipulating the trading price or trading volume of securities and futures;

(2) colluding with others to trade securities and futures with each other at the time, price and manner agreed in advance, which affects the trading price or volume of securities and futures;

(3) Trading securities between accounts under its actual control, or buying and selling futures contracts on its own, which affects the trading price or volume of securities and futures.

(4) manipulating the securities and futures markets by other means.