2019年经济学人 忽悠郎中:权健倒台背后(1)（在线收听）

China

《中国》版块

Health products

保健品

Spin doctors

忽悠郎中

A scandal surrounds a big seller of traditional medicine. How much is local government to blame?

一家传统医药的大经销商生出一桩丑闻。地方政府应该承担多少责任?

The fake advertisement was uncommonly cruel. Zhou Erli, a farmer from Inner Mongolia, first noticed it gaining popularity online when his four-year-old daughter, sick with cancer, was in intensive care. His girl was smiling in a photograph being circulated by Quanjian, a big health-products company. The ad claimed she had fully returned to health after taking the firm’s miraculous herbal remedies.

虚假广告异常残忍。来自内蒙古的农民周二力第一次注意到这个词在网上越来越受欢迎是在他四岁的女儿患癌症住院期间。在一家大型保健品公司“权健”流传的照片中，他的女儿面带微笑。广告声称，在服用了该公司神奇的草药后，她已经完全恢复了健康。

In fact, says Mr Zhou, bosses at Quanjian had told him to take his daughter off her chemotherapy treatment at a state-run children’s hospital in Beijing. They had offered what they assured him was a potent new cure: a drink made of jujube powder and gromwell-root oil. He had spent 5,000 yuan ($800) on it. But his daughter’s cancer had spread. In 2015, after the ad appeared, Mr Zhou filed a lawsuit alleging that the company had duped him, but the court dismissed his case for lack of evidence. Little Zhou Yang died a few months later.

周表示，事实上，权健的老板曾告诉他，让他的女儿停止在北京一家公立儿童医院接受化疗。他们向他提供了一种保证有效的新疗法：一种由枣粉和药用紫草油制成的饮料。他花了5000元(800美元)购买。但女儿的癌症已经扩散。2015年，该广告出现后，周提起诉讼，称该公司欺骗了他，但法院以证据不足为由驳回了他的诉讼。几个月后，小周洋病逝。

Her story might have ended there, had it not been taken up by a popular online myth-busting forum, Dingxiang Doctor. In late December, in an article that went viral, the website took aim at Quanjian, which it said had been taking in billions of yuan from annual sales. It had investments in football and equestrian clubs, cosmetics, banking, insurance and hotels. The article said the firm had earned huge profits by swindling patients. It accused Quanjian’s founder and boss, Shu Yuhui, of running the company like an illegal pyramid scheme. Quanjian’s salespeople, Dingxiang Doctor said, made money mainly by corralling new ones to join, earning commission on their sales too.

如果不是丁香医生的出现，她的故事可能就到这里结束了，丁香医生是一个很受欢迎的在线辟谣论坛。去年12月底，在一篇迅速走红的文章中，丁香医生将矛头对准了权健，称其每年的销售额高达数十亿元，用来投资足球和马术俱乐部、化妆品、银行、保险和酒店。文章称，该公司通过欺骗病人赚取了巨额利润。它指责权健的创始人兼老板舒玉辉像非法传销一样经营公司。丁香医生称，权健的销售人员主要是通过召集新成员加入来赚钱的，同时也能从销售中获得提成。