Early challenges On February 1, 2012, the company appeared on a list of 220 companies waiting for approval to go public at the
Shenzhen stock exchange. After the
IPO the company can increase the farms to 1,200 bears. China SOS collected 120 million
Chinese yuan (US$19.06 million) to buy shares of the company and stop it from going public. Guizhentang made a public list of journalists allowed into the invitation without prior consultations. According to members of the Nature Conservancy's North Asia, they said the company could be putting on a show.
Company claims In 2012 the company is known for claiming the bile extract process cause the bear no pain. This has caused heated debates online. The company argued that their method of extracting bile was legal in the PRC and replaced older methods where the bear had to be killed first.
Traditional Chinese Medicine claims Head of the China Association of Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), Fang Shuting said China has 68 licensed bear farms and more than 10,000 bears farming for bile, that can sell for 4,000 yuan a
kilogram. Fang have insisted "that the bears are quite comfortable during the extraction process. The tube is injected into the bear and the bile is pumped out like a
faucet. The bear can keep playing while being extracted." Internet users have threatened that if the tubes are so comfortable, the president should have the tubes injected into him. There have been ties shown between TCM association members who make profit off this company. The company also openly calls their bile juice a "name brand" in the market. while Pan Shiyi has said it was a made-up rumor.
2012 Shenzhen store protest On 26 February 2012, a small protest was held at a Guizhentang store in
Shenzhen. The protesters were interested in saving the bears and were against the company going public. There have also been many doctors making their case against the practice claiming there are legitimate substitutes, that actual bile from bears are not needed. To counter the protests, some have said this is a "capitalist game" of blocking companies from going public. Additional comments are made that this is no different than being cruel to chicken and ducks.
CCTV interview On 26 February 2012,
China Central Television journalist
Chai Jing interviewed Qiu Shuhua in the investigation programme
The Insight. Regarding the statement about being against the state, she said what she is doing is completely within the policy of the government. The entire process fits the requirement of the state down to the manufacturing. She does not understand why there are oppositions to the statement. The journalist points out the far tighter animal rights laws today compared to 30 years ago, Qiu said there is not much to be said about that. Qiu have pointed out the environment is like a
kindergarten, where the bears can play when they want. The journalist said that bears are continuously wounded from the tube. Many of them die of infection and liver cancer. Qiu responded that just like a family, people get sick, even doctors get sick. Qiu insisted the bears are raised to be healthy, so that they can produce the best bile juice in the country. The method to test whether the bears are healthy is to see whether they eat. There are no
exams. Qiu believes that since 1993 she has taken bears from other regions, such as
Burma and
Yunnan, and have increased the overall value of bears. She did cry in the show, and regret ever having trying to go public to the stock market as it led to a lot of trouble from activists. There were also questions regarding photo evidence of tortured bears. But some of them may not have been Guizhentang bears. Animal rights group AAF representative Zhang Xiaohai made it clear it is not Qiu Shuhua that we hate, but the entire bear bile farming industry. A Guizhentang worker then tried to demonstrate the extraction process and compares it to
milking a cow. An argument started over whether painkillers are used. The worker kept insisting the process has no pain, and claims the journalist is not a bear. ==See also==