中國醫生指鴻茅藥酒系“毒藥”被拘三個月

BEIJING — For nearly 100 days, a Chinese doctor, Tan Qindong, was jailed for an essay he wrote. He slept beside a toilet, crammed in with other suspected criminals, with little but steamed buns to eat. But his offending article was no dissident political tract.

北京——一位名叫譚秦東的中國醫生因爲寫了一篇文章，被關進監獄近100天。他睡在廁所旁邊，和其他嫌疑犯擠在一起，除了饅頭沒什麼東西可吃。但是，他那篇惹禍的文章並不是什麼異見人士的政治短文。

Dr. Tan was arrested for writing online late last year that a popular Chinese tonic liquor appeared to be quack medicine, and a potential “poison” for many retirees who drink it every day, lured by swarms of ads on daytime television and its claims to be favored by emperors centuries ago.

譚秦東被抓是因爲，去年年底他在網上發表文章說，一個賣得很好的中國滋補酒不僅藥效沒有得到證明，而且對那些每天喝它的人來說是潛在的“毒藥”。大量的日間電視廣告，以及它聲稱其深受幾百年前的皇帝喜愛，吸引了不少退休人員購買這種酒。

He was released from a detention center this week after news of his arrest ignited a furor across China. Lawyers, doctors, even state-run news outlets have asked how the Hongmao Pharmaceutical company, which has a record of exaggerated advertising claims, was able to persuade the police to arrest Dr. Tan for calling into question the benefits of its elixir.

譚秦東被抓的消息在中國引起轟動之後，一個拘留中心本週將他釋放。中國的律師、醫生甚至國有新聞媒體都想知道，只是因爲譚秦東對藥酒的功效提出質疑，鴻茅國藥股份有限公司是如何說服警方將他逮捕的。該公司有誇大廣告宣傳的記錄。

After he was freed on Tuesday, Dr. Tan told reporters that he had been in despair after he was arrested in December. But he said he was now unrepentant.

譚秦東周二獲釋後對記者說，去年12月被抓後，他曾一度感到絕望。但他說，他現在不後悔。

“It was right to write this essay,” Dr. Tan said in a video interview produced by Beijing News, a newspaper and a website. “You must speak the truth a couple of times in your lifetime, and especially if a doctor doesn’t speak the truth and lets these ads about miracle cures run rife, they’ll hurt even more people.”

“這樣的文章寫得好，”譚秦東在《新京報》報紙和網站製作的採訪視頻中說。“人一輩子要說兩句真話，特別是作爲一個醫生，你如果不敢說真話，讓這些漫天飛舞的神藥廣告漫天飛會害更多人。”

For the Hongmao company, its attempt to silence Dr. Tan has backfired monumentally.

對於鴻茅公司來說，其壓制譚秦東聲音的企圖，已經給公司帶來了嚴重的負面影響。

Almost overnight, he has become a public hero for challenging the company, which is the mainstay of the economy in Liangcheng County in Inner Mongolia, a region in northern China where it is based. Some seemed to allude to broader lessons about China’s tight restrictions on public debate and criticism.

幾乎一夜之間，譚秦東挑戰這家公司的做法，讓他成爲一名公衆英雄。總部設在中國北方內蒙古涼城縣的鴻茅公司是當地的經濟支柱。一些人似乎間接提到，這件事中有中國嚴格限制公開辯論和批評的更廣泛的教訓。

“Freedom of speech and the right to exercise oversight are fundamental rights granted to citizens by the Constitution,” said an article on Thursday in Guangming Daily, a party-run newspaper. When it comes to food and medicine concerns, it added, “freedom of speech must receive particular protection.”

“言論自由與監督權，都是憲法賦予公民的基本權利，”共產黨經營的《光明日報》週四發表的一篇文章這樣寫道。文章還說，在涉及食品和藥品安全時，“必須賦予言論自由的格外保護。”

Chinese news media outlets and law experts have said that the Hongmao company and its official backers should explain who authorized his arrest and gave the police the power to spirit Dr. Tan 1,700 miles from his home in Guangzhou, a city in China’s far south, to a squalid cell in Liangcheng County.

中國新聞媒體和法律專家說，鴻茅公司及其官方後臺應當解釋，是誰授權警方逮捕譚秦東，並將他從2700多公里遠的中國南部城市廣州的家中，不可思議地帶到了涼城縣一間骯髒的牢房的。

“This is a fairly typical instance of the public security authorities intervening in a civil dispute; it’s an overreach of power,” Wang Yong, a professor of commercial law at the China University of Political Science and Law in Beijing, said in an interview.

“這個案件是比較典型的公安部門介入民事糾紛，屬於越權，”中國政法大學商法教授王涌在接受採訪時說。

The number of cases of Chinese companies mobilizing the police against critics or commercial rivals has shrunk in recent years, he said.

近年來，中國企業動員警察打擊批評人士或商業競爭對手的案件數量有所減少，他說。

“But in this Hongmao Medical Tonic case, the role of the public security authorities in local protectionism has again come to the fore,” Professor Wang said. “The fundamental problem is that for a long time in Chinese law, the boundary between civil and criminal cases has been blurred.”

“但是在鴻茅藥酒這個案件中，公安部門的地方保護主義又一次顯現出來了。”王涌說。“根本問題在於，在我國法律中，長期以來民事、刑事案件界限模糊。”

Dr. Tan never expected such a ruckus after he published his essay criticizing Hongmao in December. He initially shared his views on a blog, which he said only a few fellow doctors read. He then spread it on WeChat, a popular Chinese social media service, where it was viewed more than 2,000 times, according to the police.

譚秦東在去年12月發表了批評鴻茅藥酒的文章之後，從未料到會引起這麼大的反響。他最初只是把自己的觀點發表在一個博客上，他說，只有少數幾個醫生讀過那篇博文。後來，他把文章發到了微信上，微信是一項廣受歡迎的中國社交媒體平臺，據警方稱，微信上的文章被瀏覽了2000多次。

But the title of Dr. Tan’s article was eye-catching: “China’s miracle liquor, ‘Hongmao Medical Tonic,’ a poison from heaven.” Dr. Tan argued that the supposed curative effects of the 67 ingredients said to be used in the alcohol-based elixir were unclear at best, and could be dangerous for people with high blood pressure or diabetes.

不過，譚秦東文章的標題《中國神酒“鴻毛藥酒”，來自天堂的毒藥》很吸引眼球。譚秦東指出，該酒號稱使用了67種成分，其療效從最好的角度來看，目前還不清楚，但對高血壓或糖尿病患者來說，喝酒可能有危險。

Hongmao had brushed aside these medical concerns, and its plethora of ads on Chinese television have exaggerated its powers, Dr. Tan wrote. Citing traditional Chinese medical theories, it claimed to relieve ailments like painful joints, frail kidneys, and weakness and anemia in women by combining 67 ingredients from plants and animals.

譚秦東寫道，鴻茅對這些醫學上的擔憂置之不理，公司在中國電視臺上做的大量廣告誇大了藥酒的功能。鴻茅引用中國傳統醫學理論聲稱，通過將67種動植物成分結合起來，鴻茅藥酒能緩解關節疼痛、腎虛、軟弱無力，以及女性貧血等疾病。

His essay had little initial impact. But in January, when Dr. Tan entered an elevator to his apartment, two men jumped in and showed police badges. They revealed that they were officers, sent from Inner Mongolia to detain and question him. Later, they took Dr. Tan to Liangcheng County by train and a long car ride.

譚秦東的文章最初並沒有什麼影響。但今年1月的一天，當譚秦東想乘電梯返貨他的住所時，兩名男子跟了進來，向他出示了警徽。他們自稱是內蒙古派來的警官，前來拘留和審問他。後來，他們押着譚秦東上了火車，又坐了一段長途汽車，把他帶到了涼城縣。

There he lingered in jail for three months, arrested under Article 221 of the Chinese criminal code, a little-used provision that makes it an offense to fabricate and spread claims that seriously damage a business’s reputation.

他在那裏的監獄待了三個月，逮捕他的依據是中國刑法第221條，這是一項很少使用的條款，把捏造並散佈嚴重損害企業聲譽的說法定爲犯罪。

“Honestly, that time was not for humans,” Dr. Tan said after his release. “Every day I slept beside the toilet, every day I ate two and a half pieces of steamed bread. There was no freedom.”

“實話說那種日子真不是人待的，”譚秦東在獲釋後說。“每天就是睡在廁所邊，每天吃兩個半饅頭，沒有自由。”

Dr. Tan said thoughts of suicide crossed his mind before he steadied himself and began to accept that he could be convicted and imprisoned for a year or two. But then this week, a news report mentioned his detention and his case became a national controversy.

譚秦東說，開始的時候他想過自殺，但後來心裏平靜了下來，並開始接受他可能會被定罪並被監禁一到兩年的可能性。不過，本週的一篇新聞報道提到了他被拘留的事情，他的案子變成了一個全國性的論戰。

After the initial reports, the police in Liangcheng County at first insisted that they had plenty of evidence to support their charge.

在最初的報道出來後，涼城縣的警方一開始堅稱他們有足夠的證據支持他們的指控。

But they wilted under the pressure and criticism of the state-run news media, as well as the Chinese Medical Doctor Association. The Supreme People’s Procuratorate, the top national prosecution office, ordered the police to release him for lack of evidence.

但是，在國有新聞媒體以及中國醫師協會的壓力和批評之下，涼城警方退縮了。中國最高的檢察機構最高人民檢察院下令警方釋放譚秦東，因爲證據不足。

Dr. Tan was freed on a kind of bail. But the investigation has not officially ended, and his lawyer, Hu Dingfeng, said he could still be rearrested. But if the police entirely abandon their case, Dr. Tan may seek compensation from the government, Mr. Hu said in a phone interview.

譚秦東以某種保釋的形式獲得了自由。但調查尚未正式結束，他的律師胡定峯說，譚秦東有可能會再次被捕。但如果警方徹底放棄他們的案子，譚秦東可能會向政府尋求賠償，胡定峯在電話採訪中說。

“I’m quite optimistic about how this case will go,” Mr. Hu said. “The case should be withdrawn, but it’s too early to say.”

“我對案件的後續走向比較樂觀，”胡定峯說。“應該會撤銷案件，但是現在說什麼還太早。”

Meanwhile, the Hongmao Pharmaceutical Company’s attempt to silence one critic has ignited a firestorm of criticism and inquiries into its extravagant advertising. Health Times, a Chinese newspaper, estimated that Hongmao had violated rules against misleading advertising more than 2,600 times.

與此同時，鴻茅國藥股份有限公司試圖噤聲一名批評者的做法，已經引發了對其鋪張浪費大做廣告的批評和調查。據中國報紙《健康時報》估計，鴻茅藥酒廣告違規的次數超過2600多次。

“After we heard the news this week, we took the tonic off our shelves,” Han Li, a drugstore manager in Beijing, said in an interview. “There was not notification from above; we just worried that there’d be a problem.”

“這周聽到新聞，我們就把酒下架了，”北京一家藥店的經理韓麗在接受採訪時說。“倒不是上級有什麼指示，而是我們擔心酒出問題。”