A file photo of self-proclaimed "Qigong Master" Wang Lin. [Photo: weixin.qq.com]
Police in Pingxiang City in east China's Jiangxi Province have detained self-proclaimed "Qigong Master" Wang Lin for questioning in connection with a kidnapping and killing case.
According to the Xinhua News Agency, the police also detained three other suspects in the case. Two of the suspects admitted kidnapping and killing the victim, Zou Yong, who was a former disciple of Wang Lin. The case is under further investigation.
A photo widely circulated on the Internet shows a man purported to be Wang Lin being questioned in an interrogation room with a clock on the wall indicating it was Wednesday morning, July 15. The authenticity of the photo could not be independently verified.
Wang Lin had reportedly been hiding in south China's Shenzhen before he was detained by the police.
Zou Yong, a businessman who formally acknowledged Wang as his master, sued Wang over a housing contract dispute involving more than 30 million yuan, or approximately 4.8 million US dollars, in 2012.
In 2013, a photo collection of Wang Lin with Chinese celebrities and government officials published by a Hong Kong publishing house raised eyebrows from the public. In the collection named "Chinese People", Wang claimed his special abilities to cure people using qigong, a traditional Chinese martial arts combined with meditation.
Wang, a native of Luxi County in east China's Jiangxi, once told Beijing News that U.S. intelligence agencies offered him 70 green cards to try to persuade him to emigrate, but he turned them down because of his attachment to his hometown. He also claimed that he had cured as many as 50,000 patients.
Many have questioned Wang's claims of medical cures and doubted whether he is cheating illed people for large sums of money.
The Health Inspection Institute of Pingxiang launched an investigation into Wang's medical practices in 2013, but ended nowhere.
Officials from the health department said that over the last two years, Luxi County authorities checked 198 clinics in 138 villages and 11 townships but could not find anyone who had been treated by Wang, nor did they find any evidence pertaining to Wang's alleged crimes.
Wang Lin has also been probed over illegal medical practices, alleged gun ownership as well as fraud.
