China’s Hualin Group becomes second medical firm in spotlight over pyramid-selling claims

Hualin Group is the latest Chinese health company to face a government investigation after authorities went after Quanjian Group and arrested its chief executive last week.

The official WeChat account of the city of Cangzhou in northern Hebei province on Tuesday said police detained senior managers at Hualin, a company that sells massage machines and health care supplements, in connection with a pyramid selling scheme after online discussion about its services last week.

Ads for Hualin devices claimed they “activate cell energy and improve acidic body nature”. This is similar to a theme developed in The pH Miracle book series by American naturopathic practitioner Robert O Young, who claimed that the balance between alkalines and acids in the human body contributed to health.

Young was arrested in California in 2014 and sentenced to three years and eight months in 2017 for theft and practising medicine without a licence. In 2018, he was fined by a court in San Diego for persuading a cancer patient to abandon medical treatment in favour of his alkaline diet.

Theories such as Young’s are popular in China, where unproven medical treatments flourish.