Quanjian arrests welcomed but angry consumers say crackdown is cold comfort
- Father who claims his young daughter died after he was convinced to take her out of hospital and give her the company’s herbal cancer remedy says he is closely watching the case
- Others who have bought products they say don’t work are not optimistic about getting refunds
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Angry consumers welcomed confirmation that the CEO and more than a dozen staff of health care product maker Quanjian Group had been arrested, but said a crackdown on the company was cold comfort.
The company has been accused of being linked to the death of a four-year-old girl in 2015. On December 25, popular health website Dingxiang Yisheng, or Doctor Clove, published a report alleging the company had convinced Zhou Erli to take his cancer-stricken daughter out of hospital and give her its herbal treatment instead.
The girl, Zhou Yang, died three years after she was diagnosed with a sacrococcygeal teratoma – a tumour at the base of her spine – and months after she started using the Quanjian remedy.
The Tianjin-based company has denied the accusations made on Doctor Clove, saying the report was based on “untrue information from the internet” and that it had defamed Quanjian. It said it had spent years researching its own products based on traditional Chinese medicine.
Zhou Erli responded to the arrests on social network WeChat with the comment: “Bad deeds never go unpunished.”
He also said he had been closely watching developments in the Quanjian case since the Doctor Clove report came out and would continue to do so.
“They totally deserved this, they should be damned for their sins,” Zhou later told the South China Morning Post.
Previously, he told the Post he hoped the company would be thoroughly investigated and that he could see justice for his daughter and other victims.
Chinese health product firm Quanjian scandal widens as public anger grows
But others who have accused the company of false marketing were less optimistic about the arrests.
One man surnamed Shen in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province said he was concerned about whether he would get a refund for the products he bought that he says were useless.
Song Sha, who lives in Changde, Hunan, said her mother had been buying products from Quanjian and similar companies for decades but they did not live up to their promises. But she doubted a crackdown by the authorities would change the situation.
“There won’t be any refund on all the products she’s bought and I doubt the [authorities] will catch them all,” she said.
Song said her mother had bought many products claiming to be based on “secret recipes” after receiving marketing messages on WeChat and other social media platforms. She said she had reported the posts to WeChat administrators but had not seen any action taken.
Video exposes dubious sales tactics at health product firm Quanjian Group after cancer death
Following confirmation of the arrests there were also calls on social media for the authorities to cast the net wider and carry out checks on other companies making big claims about their health products.
Quanjian, which was founded in 2004, owns hotels, a tumour hospital, business education schools and even a soccer club and an equestrian club, according to its website.
Public records show that its east China base in Yancheng, Jiangsu province is a sprawling complex complete with hotels, a restaurant, parks, training grounds and exhibition centres.
But the company has been under a cloud since the widely circulated report on Doctor Clove, and it has come under intense public and official scrutiny, with an investigation launched on January 1.
Many people have since taken to the internet to share their experiences with Quanjian products, including shoe pads the company claimed would improve balance, and ionised pads it said could cure gynaecological disorders and diseases.
