Black and White Cat

They’re up in arms - and its all because of those ants:

BEIJING, Nov 21 (Reuters) - Thousands of people in northeastern China have protested on the streets and surrounded government offices demanding help recovering money from a get-rich-quick scheme to raise ants to make an aphrodisiac tonic.

Hundreds of anti-riot troops and police in Shenyang, capital of Liaoning province, were deployed to stop protesters reaching the provincial government and Communist Party headquarters, residents said on Wednesday.

Read the rest of the report here.

John Kennedy at Global Voices has preserved and translated a good collection of Internet reactions before they were all disappeared, along with photos of the protests and comedian Zhao Benshan’s nudge, nudge, wink, wink TV ad for the now-defunct product. (Cross-posted here)

Search engines have been scrubbed (at this time of writing - obviously these figures will change):

Google, 248,000 results:

Baidu, 0 results:

Google.cn, 0 results:

But why did Yilishen run into financial trouble right now? Are its aphrodisiac properties really because of the ants? Yilishen was banned in the United States in 2004 because the FDA said it contained sildenafil. In other words, Viagra:

WASHINGTON, Nov. 2 (AP) - The Food and Drug Administration warned consumers on Tuesday not to buy or use nonprescription supplements known as Actra-Rx or Yilishen because they contain the active ingredient in the prescription drug Viagra and could lower blood pressure to unsafe levels.

The agency also instructed employees to block imports of the supplements, which are advertised on Web sites as treatments for erectile dysfunction, calling them “dangerous and even life-threatening.” The agency said the supplement bears the name Yilishen when it is imported from China and is sold as Actra-Rx in the United States.

According to the FDA’s website, Yilishen is still banned in the US. This was reported in China (Chinese link). So did Yilishen’s uplifting effect derive from the ants, or from a prescription drug that can give people heart attacks? If it did, was that drug later removed from the compound? Or do Yilishen’s problems have anything to do with the quality and safety crackdown that is now underway in China?

And will the thousands of farmers and laid off workers who have just been ruined ever see their money again?