The death of a private detective, allegedly at the hands of the people he was investigating, has sparked renewed debate over how the industry is governed.
Huang Lirong, 39, died last month after he was hired to snoop on the boss of the Forbidden City Chinese Herbal Medicine Clinic in Changchun, Jilin province.
Police say that on December 8, Huang was paid 3,000 yuan by a Shaanxi-based hair care firm to spy on Zhao Jun. It is not clear what he was asked to look for.
The hair care company said it signed a deal with Zhao in 1997 to sell its products. It says he made exaggerated claims for the products in newspaper advertisements in Beijing and Nanjing, resulting in the products being banned by industry watchdogs in 2002. The hair care firm says it then demanded that Zhao pay compensation, but he allegedly refused and made threatening phone calls to the owner's pharmacy.
On December 13, Huang was spotted by Yang Zhanli, the clinic's business manager, who allegedly then sent six of his henchmen to find out what the detective was doing.
Huang was later found dead. His body was wrapped in a bed sheet and dumped in front of the Beijing Hospital that night.
