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This article is republished with permission from Finance World Weekly (ID: cjtxzk)
Author: Cao Yilei; Editor: Hua Ji The scale of young people whose health is ruined by betel nut and the distorted development of the betel nut industry are on two fast tracks heading in opposite directions. The hard-to-regulate betel nut industry has finally imposed a restraint on itself. Recently, the Hunan Betel Nut Food Industry Association issued a document stating that, in response to market supervision requirements, member units will stop all domestic advertising from March 7, and betel nut ads are not allowed in newspapers, television, or other media. Yang Xun, the association's president, responded to Beijing News that even already-signed advertising placements must be forcibly stopped. He emphasized that the document is unrelated to "3.15" and is mainly to standardize industry development and encourage self-discipline among enterprises. In recent years, betel nut ads have not only appeared on Hunan TV's Lantern Festival Gala but also "showed their face" in popular web dramas. The classification of betel nut has always been vague—it is both a traditional Chinese medicine and a food. It wasn't until 2017 that the China Food and Drug Administration released a complete list of carcinogens, listing betel nut as a Class I carcinogen. However, past cancer controversies have not brought down the betel nut industry. Over the past 20 years, the betel nut industry in Hunan, Hainan, and other places has continued to expand. Younger betel nut brands have even appeared on local satellite TV Lantern Festival galas and been embedded in popular web dramas. The scale of young people whose health is ruined by betel nut and the distorted development of the betel nut industry are on two fast tracks heading in opposite directions. The Face-Cutters and the Betel Nut Kingdom Tongue removed, gums excised, surgical scars extending from the upper palate to the cheekbones... This is the typical appearance of an oral cancer patient after surgery. At the same time, they are betel nut addicts; the black nuts chewed pack after pack have led them into the abyss of pain. These cancer patients, addicted to betel nut, share a common name: "face-cutters." Betel nut has been thrust into the spotlight more than once. On April 14, 2018, the official website of Hunan Xiangya Hospital posted a message: "In Ward 46 of the Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, among 50 inpatients, 45 have oral cancer, and 44 have a history of long-term, heavy betel nut chewing." Hunan, a province that does not produce betel nut, is a key area for the industry's development and consumption, and also a hard-hit area for oral cancer. In 2017, a paper titled "Predicting the Number of Oral Cancer Cases Induced by Betel Nut in China and the Medical Burden" published in the Journal of Dental Research collected data on oral cancer patients from five large general and cancer-specialized hospitals in Changsha, including Xiangya Hospital, Xiangya Second Hospital, and Hunan Cancer Hospital. The article showed that over the past 12 years, oral cancer cases in the five hospitals in Changsha have grown rapidly, from 305 cases in 2005 to 2,108 in 2016, totaling 11,882 cases. The "face-cutters" of the betel nut kingdom face surgical treatment and arduous radiotherapy and chemotherapy. More than half of patients die from recurrence after treatment, with a five-year survival rate of about 50%. If they survive, they will carry permanently disfigured faces and severe oral dysfunction into the future, tormented by pain. The source of the disaster is a black nut the size of a thumb. Betel nut is addictive due to the pleasure of chewing, and it contains alkaloids, tannins, areca-specific nitrosamines, and reactive oxygen species that are cytotoxic, genotoxic, and even directly carcinogenic. The rough fibers cause local damage to the oral mucosa through friction. In 2013, CCTV launched a campaign against "betel nut causing cancer," which dealt a heavy blow to the Hunan betel nut industry. This "evil wind" also affected A-share pharmaceutical companies that use betel nut in their products. Stocks of Tianjin Zhongxin Pharmaceutical, Beijing Tongrentang, Harbin Pharmaceutical, and others fell collectively, with Zhongxin Pharmaceutical even hitting the daily limit down. The public opinion was settled within months. CCTV Finance changed its stance, saying the cancer claims lacked scientific basis, and the situation calmed down. Jian Xinchun, president of the Hunan Stomatological Association and director of the Oral Cancer Precancerous Lesion Research Institute at Central South University, wrote in a 2014 paper "Betel Nut Carcinogens and Oral Cancer": "Chewing betel nut can cause oral submucous fibrosis (OSF), which is a precancerous lesion that can progress to oral cancer through a long-term chronic pathological process." The pathological relationship between betel nut and OSF is complex. Not everyone who chews betel nut develops the disease, and not all OSF patients progress to oral cancer. He Zhijing, an attending physician in the Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery at Xiangya Second Hospital, once told the media, "With more people chewing betel nut, naturally more people will get OSF, and the cancer rate among OSF patients is much higher than the normal population. These people need to be made aware of the severity of the problem." In 2017, the China Food and Drug Administration released a complete list of carcinogens, listing betel nut as a Class I carcinogen. The harm of betel nut has been severely ignored, and the public has even been misled by phrases like "Betel nut doesn't cause cancer; it's all rumors." Betel nut has not been restricted in advertising, nor has it been labeled with warnings like "Smoking is harmful to health" as cigarettes are. Instead, it has been promoted as a miracle drug that "refreshes the mind and restores youth." This betel nut kingdom, with a market size of nearly 100 billion yuan, has not been defeated by public opinion. After a brief downturn, it regained growth momentum until the latest round of questioning. A Pillar Industry Under Local Protection Betel nut, this black nut, can ruin a young person's health but also support a local industry. Xiangtan has a 400-year history of consuming betel nut. According to Guangming Daily, the total output value of Hunan's betel nut industry exceeds 30 billion yuan, accounting for about three-quarters of the national total. The betel nut industry has become a pillar industry in the region, and the government has introduced supportive policies to vigorously promote it. In August 2017, Xiangtan County, Hunan, issued the "Opinions of Xiangtan County People's Government on Supporting the Development of the Betel Nut Industry." The opinions stated the goal of building a famous Chinese betel nut cultural city, strengthening the industry, and ensuring that sales revenue reaches 30 billion yuan in three years and 50 billion yuan in five years. Hunan does not produce betel nut; it only manufactures it. Hainan is the raw material production area. Since 2010, Hainan's betel nut industry has entered the fast lane, with the total output value of the entire industrial chain exceeding 20 billion yuan in 2017, becoming an important source of income for local farmers. With strong government support, betel nut enterprises have avoided public opinion crises and steadily risen, becoming major local taxpayers. Hunan Tianyi Economic Development Zone released tax data: in 2016, the betel nut industry chain in the zone paid nearly 100 million yuan in taxes, accounting for 10% of the zone's total tax revenue. The industry chain employed 60,000 people and paid annual wages of about 3 billion yuan. The leading betel nut enterprises in Tianyi Economic Development Zone have formed the first echelon of Hunan's betel nut food industry. By the end of 2017, there were 10 enterprises above designated size in the zone's entire industrial chain, with annual finished products exceeding 100,000 tons and an annual output value of over 13 billion yuan. Yang Xun, president of the Hunan Betel Nut Food Industry Association, once told the media that over the past 20 years, Hunan's betel nut industry has continued to expand, currently employing 300,000 industrial workers and forming a complete industrial chain including processing, logistics, warehousing, and marketing. The betel nut industries in Hunan and Hainan have not shrunk or stagnated due to controversy. Instead, after a round of public government rebuttals, they have continued to grow. The local economy is inseparable from betel nut; employment, taxes, production capacity... every economic indicator is tied to this small nut. This makes it easy to understand why the betel nut industry is difficult to shake. Of course, some are calculating a different account. A paper titled "Predicting the Number of Oral Cancer Cases Induced by Betel Nut in China and the Medical Burden" mentioned that by 2030, betel nut-related oral cancer cases in Hunan could cumulatively exceed 300,000, and conservatively, more than 1 million nationwide. The medical burden of betel nut-related oral cancer nationwide, conservatively estimated at 200,000 yuan per case, could cumulatively exceed 200 billion yuan, enough to offset its economic contribution to society. The Wealth Myth of Starting with 25 Yuan, and Wang Han's Betel Nut Ad During the recent Spring Festival, if you watched the Spring Festival Gala on Hunan Satellite TV, you would have noticed this brand: Kouweiwang Betel Nut. This is the third year "Kouweiwang" has sponsored Hunan TV's programs. In 2017, Wang Han, the host of Hunan Satellite TV, shouted the slogan "Kouweiwang, the King of Betel Nut" during the Spring Festival Gala. This local Hunan betel nut brand was pushed in front of the whole country for the first time. In 2018, the brand was given a warm holiday touch, with Wang Han again saying, "Hunan people eat Kouweiwang during the New Year." Eighteen years ago, when Guo Zhiguang started selling betel nut from scratch, he had only 25 yuan, starting from a small workshop of 12 people. Two years later, "Kouweiwang" captured 95% of the Yueyang market. In 2013, "Kouweiwang" also did not escape the public opinion crisis. The overall price of betel nut dropped from 6 yuan per jin the previous year to 1.2-1.4 yuan per jin. The struggling "Kouweiwang" began to reform. In 2015, Chen Yi joined Kouweiwang, working in sales, and later became the company's president. In 2014, Kouweiwang launched a new brand, "Hechengtianxia," featuring smokeless green fruit refining technology, targeting the young and high-end market. Priced at 50 yuan, "Hechengtianxia" was significantly higher than the market average. Kouweiwang stated that this product had a 95% market share. They cited Nielsen market research, saying that in Hunan, for every 10 packs of high-end betel nut sold, 7 were Hechengtianxia. Before the Hunan Betel Nut Food Industry Association required members to stop advertising, "Kouweiwang" had sponsored Hunan Satellite TV's Spring Festival Gala for three consecutive years. At a moment facing a national audience, betel nut shed its controversy and contradictions, stood at the center of the stage, and became the "miracle drug" that the host said "immediately refreshes you, restores youth, and brings back a young state." To win the hearts of young people, Kouweiwang won the product placement in the web drama based on the "Ghost Blows Out the Light" IP, and even had characters in the show verbally recommend betel nut. After occupying local satellite TV and online platforms, Kouweiwang did not miss the high ground of public welfare advertising. In 2017, Kouweiwang donated 1 million yuan to the Yiyang Hope Project助学行动. Although betel nut has been listed as a Class I carcinogen, the production and consumption standards for edible betel nut remain in a gray area. But regarding the industry's future, "Kouweiwang" president Chen Yi remains confident. On April 10, 2018, during the Boao Forum for Asia, he predicted that the industry would reach at least a 100-billion-yuan market capacity. Facing this huge industry, some medical professionals have called for labeling betel nut packaging with "Betel nut is harmful to health" to be responsible for public health. -END-