2019年经济学人 忽悠郎中:权健倒台背后(3)（在线收听）

Tianjin has been known since imperial days for health-care research and manufacturing. Tong Ren Tang, a 350-year-old herbal-medicine business, is based in the nearby capital. It is the best-known maker of traditional Chinese medicine, a system of often unproven remedies that goes back 2,500 years. Zhu Yonghong, co-founder of Tasly, a big traditional-medicine firm in Tianjin, says Quanjian and firms like it set up in Tianjin to profit from Tong Ren Tang’s aura. According to Mr Zhu, they “blurred the line” between regulated traditional medicine and outright quackery.

天津自封建王朝以来就以医疗研究和生产而闻名。拥有350年历史的中药企业同仁堂就坐落在附近。同仁堂是中国最著名的中药生产商，中药是一种已有2500年历史的治疗方法，但通常未经证实。天津大型传统医药公司塔斯利的联合创始人朱永红说，权健以及类似这样的公司在天津设立是为了从同仁堂的光环中获利。朱表示，他们“模糊了”受监管的传统医药与彻头彻尾的江湖医术之间的界限。

Quanjian’s founder, Mr Shu, first came to the port to work for Tianshi (known abroad as Tiens), a large seller of health products. The company’s name means “heavenly lion”. Two such beasts with gigantic wings flank the entrance to Tianshi’s headquarters. The firm says it has more than 10,000 staff in 110 countries. It also owns hotels, a college and a hot-spring resort. Its chairman, Li Jinyuan, a former oilfield worker, is Tianjin’s richest man. In 2015 he took 6,000 staff to France on a splashy holiday. Sustaining this are Tianshi’s machines offering diagnoses based on palm-readings. They claim to detect ailments ranging from HIV to hepatitis, for which the firm offers pricey treatments.

权健创始人舒玉辉刚到天津港时在大型保健品销售商天狮(国外称为天狮)工作。公司的名字用英文解释为“heavenly lion（天上的狮子）”。在天师大本营的入口两侧，就有两只长着巨大翅膀的巨兽。该公司表示，在110个国家设有分部，员工大达1万多名。还拥有酒店、一所大学和一个温泉度假村。该公司董事长、前油田工人李金元是天津首富。2015年，他带着6000名员工去法国度假。维持这种营收靠天狮的机器，通过掌纹等信息就可以提供诊断。并声称能检测出从HIV到肝炎等各种疾病，该公司为这些疾病提供昂贵的治疗。

According to his biography, Mr Shu later set up Quanjian with 600 secret traditional recipes (he is said to come from a family of herbal doctors). A board in the entrance to his shuttered hospital reads: “To say something is real that isn’t, is deception; to make something real that isn’t, is skill.” A user on Weibo, a Twitter-like site, sums up the appeal: “Quanjian tells patients they will live when hospitals tell them they will die.”

据其传记记载，舒玉辉后来用600道传统秘方创立了权健(据说他来自一个中药世家)。在其关闭的医院门口的牌子上写着：“把本来不真实的东西说成真实，是欺骗；让本来不真实的东西变成真实，是技巧。”一位微博（类似推特的软件）用户总结了这一吸引力：“在医院告知病人痊愈几率为零时，权健却告诉他们可以痊愈。”

To boost demand for its products, Quanjian devised an alluring scheme. Buying seven pairs of the magic insoles would earn a member the right to become a distributor. To innocent consumers, that seemed above-board: Quanjian has all the trappings of a legal direct-sales firm, including licences from the Ministry of Commerce (in February the ministry said it had suspended the issuing of permits for direct selling). But Quanjian’s pyramid-type recruitment method is banned. Companies that use it are commonly described in China as “business cults”. That is because gangs often ensnare jobseekers into joining. Ecstatic rallies keep alive participants’ illusory dreams of enrichment.

为了刺激对其产品的需求，权健设计了一个诱人的方案。购买七双魔术鞋垫就可以从会员成为经销。对无辜的消费者来说，这似乎是光明正大的：权健拥有合法直销公司的所有标志，包括商务部颁发的许可证（商务部今年2月表示，已暂停发放直销许可证）。但权健的金字塔式招聘方法是被禁止的。在中国，使用这种方式的公司通常被称为“商业邪教”。这是因为犯罪团伙经常诱骗求职者加入。疯狂的集会让参与者一直怀揣致富梦想。