
Doctor tells of harrowing arrest after calling popular tonic ‘harmful’ in blog - seanmcdirmid
http://www.globaltimes.cn/content/1099913.shtml
======
miles
_Tan became a public hero after he referred to a popular Chinese medicinal
tonic as a "poison" in his blog, and was then arrested by police from
Liangcheng for damaging the reputation of Hongmao Pharmaceutical Company,
which produces the tonic._

This tale, of a state imprisoning one of its citizens over what should be a
civil matter at most, sounds familiar...

E-waste recycler loses appeal on computer restore disks, must serve prison
term
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16921634](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16921634)

~~~
jack9
> E-waste recycler loses appeal on computer restore disks,

That's not the same at all. That was consumer fraud.

~~~
TaylorAlexander
What’s funny is we call it fraud here and put the person in jail. In China
they don’t call that same act fraud, but they do claim that harming a
company’s reputation is a crime.

I agree with you that our legal system states he broke the law, but the same
may be true of the story in China. The state always justifies its behavior
with the law, but that doesn’t make it justice.

~~~
icebraining
EDIT: nevermind, I misread the post

 _that same act_

I think what jack9 is saying is that it's not the same act.

~~~
SpaceNugget
The person you are replying to knows that. He is saying its funny how if you
took both people, and put them in the opposite country and had them commit the
"same act" that they had done in their home country they would be fine. i.e.
copying cds and distributing them is OK by china, and blog posts about
unethical advertising of medicine is OK by the US.

~~~
icebraining
Oh, right, thanks.

------
mabbo
> Police from Liangcheng, where the company is based, travelled nearly 2,000
> kilometers to Guangzhou to arrest him.

So it's to be understood that the police are just hired thugs in China?
Whoever pays the most gets to have anyone arrested? Disgusting.

The west isn't perfect, but at least we have the decency to feel ashamed when
this sort of thing happens.

~~~
smnrchrds
Don't forget about Sergey Aleynikov [0]. To quote HN user blackbagboys [1] as
they quote Vanity Fair [2]:

> I read Michael Lewis's article in Vanity Fair about this case back in 2013,
> and I remember being struck by this excerpt in particular:

> _[Goldman] called the F.B.I. in haste, just two days before, and then put
> their agent through what amounted to a crash course on high-frequency
> trading and computer programming. McSwain later conceded that he didn’t seek
> out independent expert advice to study the code Serge Aleynikov had taken.
> (“I relied on statements from Goldman employees.”) He himself had no idea of
> the value of the stolen code (“Representatives of Goldman told me it was
> worth a lot of money”) or if any of it was actually all that special (he
> based his belief that the code contained trade secrets on “representations
> made by members of Goldman Sachs”)...The F.B.I.’s investigation before the
> arrest consisted of trusting Goldman’s explanation of some extremely
> complicated stuff, and 48 hours after Goldman called the F.B.I., Serge was
> arrested._

> That, as the complaint highlights, the FBI instinctively acted as Goldman's
> punitive arm rather than conducting an independent investigation into the
> facts of the case is disturbing, regardless of the merit of the allegations.

So yes, the police act as hired thugs in the US too, if you are wealthy enough
to be able to afford it.

[0]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sergey_Aleynikov](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sergey_Aleynikov)

[1]
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9045313](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9045313)

[2] [http://www.vanityfair.com/news/2013/09/michael-lewis-
goldman...](http://www.vanityfair.com/news/2013/09/michael-lewis-goldman-
sachs-programmer)

EDIT:

Even better example: Louisiana school board hires a cop to be present as
security officer during a meeting. He then proceeds to arrest the teacher who
protested the board's decision on the issue being discussed. Many of the
people who watched the video (me included) believe that the cop was there to
do exactly that--intimidate teachers into silence and use force on those who
could not be silenced.

[https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-
way/2018/01/10/577010534...](https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-
way/2018/01/10/577010534/outcry-after-louisiana-teacher-arrested-during-
school-board-meeting)

~~~
aaronchall
> police acts as hired thugs in the US too

Yes, in this case.

> if you are wealthy enough to be able to afford it.

They won't take money, if that's what you're saying.

If they think they can get credit for an easy prosecution for a big crime
without too much due-diligence, I don't see why they should care if the
accuser is wealthy.

~~~
anoncoward111
Many police make $100,000+ per year. The police chief is often politically
connected to expensive corporate-exec donors.

And, one would have to be SUPREMELY naive to think that a system of informal
kickbacks doesn't exist between rich people and the police officers they know.

------
lopmotr
China is totally infested with these herbal "medicines" (TCM). It's not just
that drink, it's everywhere. Doctors at hospitals and private clinics
prescribe them, pharmacies sell them alongside real medicine. Most people
believe they're medicine and don't even know which are herbal and which
aren't. It's their equivalent to homeopathy but mainstream instead of
restricted to a few nutters.

~~~
inteleng
The US and most of Europe had the same problems up until the early 20th
century.

~~~
janekm
Still today, surely? If you go to a normal pharmacy in Germany you will find a
lot of "homeopathic" medicines as well as various herbal remedies with about
the same quality of evidence as "traditional Chinese medicine".

~~~
Scoundreller
But much less lead and arsenic.

------
selimthegrim
How did they spend three times their annual revenue on advertising?

