Beijing doctor sets 100,000 yuan pregnancy test in challenge to traditional Chinese medicine

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Beijing doctor Ning Fanggang pledges to give 100,000 yuan to any registered Chinese medicine doctor who is able to pass the pregnancy test using the traditional method.

Published: 2:06pm, 5 Nov 2014Updated: 2:53pm, 4 Oct 2017

A high-profile Beijing doctor offered a 100,000 yuan (HK$126,000) reward as he laid down a challenge to Chinese medicine practitioners to prove that their traditional methods work.

Ning Fanggang, a doctor at Beijing’s Jishuitan Hospital, said he wanted to know the truth behind traditional doctors’ claims that they can diagnose pregnancy by taking a pulse, in what is widely seen as the latest battle between Western medicine and its traditional Chinese counterpart.

Ning, a long-time critic of Chinese medicine who frequently questions the practice on his Weibo microblogging account, has pledged to give the money to any registered Chinese medicine doctor who is able to demonstrate at least 80 per cent accuracy in diagnosing pregnancy within 12 weeks using the traditional method.

He declined to comment when reached by the South China Morning Post on the telephone on Wednesday.

The idea for the challenge was first discussed in September and has triggered heated debate on the internet about the validity of Chinese medicine.

The rules were eventually laid down earlier this week, after multiple rounds of discussions between Chinese medicine supporters and organisers on how the challenge should proceed.

There will be 32 test subjects, randomly selected from a group of 40 women, half of them pregnant and half not, according to a set of conditions published on Weibo by CCTV journalist Wang Zhian, who organised the contest along with Beijing-based pharmaceutical company Renown.