The Hongcheng Magic Liquid incident
was a
scam
A confidence trick is an attempt to defraud a person or group after first gaining their trust. Confidence tricks exploit victims using their credulity, naïveté, compassion, vanity, confidence, irresponsibility, and greed. Researchers hav ...
in China where Wang Hongcheng (), a bus driver from
Harbin with no scientific education,
claimed in 1983 that he could turn regular water into a fuel as flammable as petrol by simply dissolving a few drops of his liquid in it.
He founded the Hongcheng Magic Liquid company with funds from Chinese governmental agencies
and other supporters, raising a total of 300 million
yuan (US$37 million),
but no product was ever released.
Around that time, in 1994, the Chinese Government, alarmed by an increase in
pseudoscience
Pseudoscience consists of statements, beliefs, or practices that claim to be both scientific and factual but are incompatible with the scientific method. Pseudoscience is often characterized by contradictory, exaggerated or unfalsifiable claim ...
and
superstition
A superstition is any belief or practice considered by non-practitioners to be irrational or supernatural, attributed to fate or magic, perceived supernatural influence, or fear of that which is unknown. It is commonly applied to beliefs an ...
s in the post-Mao era, made a declaration decrying the deterioration of science education in the country, taking several measures to improve science education and to improve the prevalence of science and technology in courts.
One of these efforts was to require the scientific authoritative journal ''
Science and Technology Daily
''Science and Technology Daily'' (, Keji Ribao) is the official newspaper of the Ministry of Science and Technology of the People's Republic of China. It is published in Chinese and based in Beijing. Historically, it was one of the few Chinese n ...
'' to carry an article critical of Hongcheng's invention, which had been previously rejected at several major Chinese publications.
This created a growing publicity and opposition of Hongcheng's invention, silencing his supporters.
In 1995 Hongcheng refused an invitation to carry out a scientific appraisal of his invention at Beijing, and the notable scientist and debunker
He Zuoxiu and 40 other scientists made a statement calling for the Chinese Government to investigate his claims.
Hongcheng was eventually arrested, put to trial, and in 1998, was found guilty of fraud and deceit and condemned to 10 years of prison.
Invention and initial experiments
Wang Hongcheng was a bus driver from
Harbin, a former soldier with ninth-grade education
[Meaning that he was schooled until the age of 14 or 15 years old. The magazine stating this is from the US, "ninth-grade" in the US corresponds to the first year of ]High school
A secondary school describes an institution that provides secondary education and also usually includes the building where this takes place. Some secondary schools provide both '' lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper seconda ...
and no scientific training.
In 1983 he claimed that he invented a liquid that could transform a liter of regular water into a fuel by simply adding two or three drops of his liquid, and that this resulting fuel was as combustible as petrol.
Hongcheng called it "the fifth greatest invention of China", in a reference to the
four Great Inventions of China, and his invention became more popular, finally reaching on 28 January 1993 the front pages of a major national newspaper.
In the winter of 1985, Wang showed this technique in Beijing, Hebei,
Zhejiang
Zhejiang ( or , ; , also romanized as Chekiang) is an eastern, coastal province of the People's Republic of China. Its capital and largest city is Hangzhou, and other notable cities include Ningbo and Wenzhou. Zhejiang is bordered by ...
and Shanghai.
Hongcheng Magic Liquid company
The Chinese security and military departments started to look into his claims and funded his research.
[From a Carl Sagan article, the same text also appeared verbatim in his book ]The Demon-Haunted World
''The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark'' is a 1995 book by the astrophysicist Carl Sagan and co-authored by Ann Druyan, in which the authors aim to explain the scientific method to laypeople and to encourage people to learn ...
Does truth matter?
, by Carl Sagan
Carl Edward Sagan (; ; November 9, 1934December 20, 1996) was an American astronomer, planetary scientist, cosmologist, astrophysicist, astrobiologist, author, and science communicator. His best known scientific contribution is research on ...
, pages 8–9
* In 1992–1993 Hongcheng founded a company called ''Hongcheng Magic Liquid'' to manufacture his product
and raised a total of 300 million yuan (US$37 million).
No product, working or otherwise, was ever commercially released.
Chinese Government reaction and repercussions
In 1994 the Chinese Government was alarmed by a recent raise in pseudoscience and a revival of old superstition, and issued a declaration declaring the rise of superstition and ignorance, how the science education had declined among the population, and how it would make efforts to combat this situation.
After this declaration,
Song Jian, then chief director of the Chinese
National Science Committee, held a conference on how to carry this work among the public.
Song Jian was then told at the conference that an article