“Someone is cheating families of autistic people out of their money.” Wensheng Lai, 45, said. Wensheng Lai settled in the United States after graduating with a doctorate. He has an autistic daughter, Yaya, who is 8 years old and has unfortunately been diagnosed with autism. Li Wensheng recalls that Yaya was a particularly obedient child when she was young, not crying much, “but once she cried, she was shocked.” When Mr. and Mrs. Lai first met with Yaya’s pediatrician, the doctor was blunt: “This child seems to be a bit abnormal and may have autism.” Autism, also known as autism, collectively known as Autism Spectrum Disorder, is a group of congenital brain development disorders that begin early in childhood development and continue throughout life. The cause is unknown and is characterized by social communication deficits, narrow interests, and repetitive stereotypic behaviors, but individual presentations vary widely. As a result, autism is difficult to diagnose and the diagnostic process is complex. Children with autism rarely communicate with the outside world and often play on their own. Some children are extraordinarily interested in letters, numbers, and shapes; they can recite poems and jingles and sing songs, but they do not speak everyday language. Most autistic children are hyperactive, disobedient and do what they want, but there are a few autistic children who can appear well behaved and quiet. Wensheng Lai did not believe his daughter was autistic at first. To be on the safe side, he went to another child neurologist, who carefully diagnosed her and came to the same conclusion. Wensheng then began a long journey to save his daughter. He first took a graduate course in autism at university, and then set up a domestic autism parent support group on the Internet to encourage and help each other. The first case of autism in China was reported in 1982. In 2012, Wensheng Lai returned to China for a vacation and visited several autism intervention centers in different provinces and cities, and “felt strongly the backwardness and disorder of autism education in China. From early screening, to behavioral interventions, to custodial care, most people with autism need social and family care throughout their lives. However, there are no more than 100 doctors nationwide who can diagnose autism, and there are only a hundred or eighty public autism service providers in the China Disabled Persons’ Federation system. There are also only about 1,000 institutions founded by parents or private individuals. Faced with the huge contradiction between supply and demand for medical services, Vincent Lai found that some hospitals were using the very expensive “RNC biorepair therapy” and “BNP digital bio-neural repair technology”. It is claimed that it can “completely overcome the developmental behavioral disorders of children”, including tics, ADHD, autism, etc. The representative hospitals are Beijing Guoji Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine and Guangzhou Harmony Hospital. Wensheng Li knew that with the current level of medical technology, autism could not be cured, and there was no drug or surgical treatment. He finally figured out the fact that these medical institutions peddle all kinds of miracle cures in the guise of highbrow, creating a series of scams and taking advantage of parents’ desperation to make a “disaster fortune. In October 2014, the Autism Research Guidance Center of the Family Education Professional Committee of the Chinese Education Society and other organizations released the “Report on the Developmental Status of Children with Autism in China” (hereinafter referred to as “the Report”). This industry report, the first comprehensive introduction to autism in China, revealed that there may be more than 10 million patients in China, of which, there may be more than 2 million children between the ages of 0 and 14. In April 2015, the “Report on the Development of the Autism Education and Rehabilitation Industry in China,” compiled by Beijing Normal University Press and the Colorful Deer Children’s Behavior Modification Center, and published with the support of the China Disabled Persons’ Welfare Foundation, revealed that according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the prevalence of autism is growing rapidly. the prevalence rate in 1975 was 1 in 5,000, in 2006 it was 1 in Currently, China has not conducted a national epidemiological survey on autism, and the prevalence rate is presumed to be 1 in 100. However, the official projection is that there are more than 1.6 million children with autism in China. According to Han Jibin, director of the Second Division of the Rehabilitation Department of the China Disabled Persons’ Federation, the Second National Sample Survey of Persons with Disabilities in 2006 included childhood autism in the category of mental disability for the first time. According to the survey, 0.11 percent of the total number of Chinese children aged 0 to 6 with mental disabilities, of which typical autism accounts for about 37 percent, or 41,000. If atypical autism is added, it accounts for 70 percent of children with mental disabilities. Han Jibin has told Caixin that the difference between the data is mainly due to the different criteria for identifying autism. The U.S. has relatively lenient criteria, including more cases of milder severity, resulting in a higher prevalence rate. China has adopted stricter criteria, resulting in a lower prevalence rate, otherwise it would be difficult to keep up with treatment and rehabilitation resources. Regardless of the prevalence statistics, China’s large autism population and its rehabilitation needs cannot be ignored, given the huge population base. In the post-EFG era, many people in the autism parents’ support group founded by Wensheng Li have brought their children to Beijing Guoji Hospital for BNP biotherapy, which is expensive and has little effect. Mr. Zhao, 29, is one of them. Mr. Zhao’s son, who is 3 years old, does not meet people’s eyes or speak. Mr. Zhao noticed something strange and searched for autism on Baidu, and was soon navigated to a website of Beijing Guoji Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine. The couple was immediately attracted by the miraculous efficacy of the advertised treatment. Since mid-2014, Mr. Zhao has made seven or eight trips from Henan to Beijing to have his child treated at the Beijing Guoji TCM Hospital. The Guoji TCM Hospital is only a few hundred meters away from the Beijing West Railway Station. In order to save money, Mr. Zhao’s family takes the train every time they come to Beijing at night, arrives in Beijing in the morning, and takes the train back the same night after seeing the doctor. Mr. Zhao recalled to the Caixin reporter that the first time he went to Guoji Hospital for Traditional Chinese Medicine, the doctor was very quick in his consultation and then arranged for the child to undergo an “EFG brain neurotransmitter” test, the results of which were available in 8 minutes. After that, the doctor gave a diagnosis based on the indicators in the test sheet. After the first consultation, the EFG test is performed every three months for a single fee of 600 RMB. For the first three months of treatment, it was only injections and medication. He didn’t know what kind of injection was given, and the medicine he took included “Di Mu Shen Ning Oral Liquid” and “Pediatric Intelligence Syrup”. Three months later, Guozhi Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine started to conduct BNP biotechnology treatment for 15-20 minutes each time. How does BNP treatment work? “You are not allowed in and you can’t see inside.” All parents have no knowledge of what is happening inside the treatment room, and it is difficult for children with autism to retell their parents about the treatment experience. Once this treatment for children with autism begins, it can take as few as seven or eight sessions, and as long as three. So far, BNP therapy has emptied Mr. Zhao’s savings of 50,000 yuan, but the results are not obvious. Mr. Zhao told Caixin that every time he took his son to the doctor, the cost of prescriptions and “biotechnology treatment” was about 7,000 yuan. For older children, the hospital charges about 10,000 yuan a time. Another mother in the autism parents group, Ms. Gao, said that some families have spent millions of yuan on BNP biotherapy. In a promotional video on the Guozhi Hospital’s own website, a “journalist” interviewed the hospital about its effectiveness. According to the interview, nearly 20 patients come to the hospital every day. Talking about the efficacy, Liu Haoran, the autism “ace doctor” of Guoji TCM Hospital, said in the film: “The total efficiency rate, according to our clinical statistics, is over 90% …… after a period of treatment, basically reaching a cure …… Today I have two (cured) in the follow-up.” According to the Caixin reporter’s incomplete statistics, the hospitals that directly claim to use BNP biological treatment nationwide are at least Beijing Guoji Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Guangzhou Harmony Hospital, Nanchang Erqi Children’s Hospital, Urumqi Edward Hospital, Urumqi Zhongshan Hospital, Xi’an Metropolitan Hospital, Shenyang Military Region Joint Services Hospital, Taiyuan Yimin Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine, and Taiyuan Yimin Autism Treatment Hospital. At least Beijing Golden Child Hospital, Jinan 106 Hospital, Shanghai Hongqiao Hospital, Gansu Shengde Hospital, and Shanghai Zhongguancun Hospital have different names such as “BNT”, “DWT”, and “brain-awakening four-dimensional therapy”. The hospital is a very important part of the medical system. In terms of Baidu search information, Beijing Guoji Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine and Guangzhou Harmony Hospital posted the most BNP treatment advertisements. The list of these hospitals with miraculous efficacy for autism, as well as the brain neurotransmitter tests issued by Guoji TCM Hospital for Mr. Zhao’s son, are quite similar to the medical scam in the name of treating depression. Less than a year ago, in dozens of hospitals nationwide, an instrument called “EFG Brain Neurotransmitter Test” claimed to be able to “quantitatively detect six central neurotransmitters such as norepinephrine, 5-hydroxytryptamine and dopamine non-invasively”. “It can cure depression, schizophrenia, Parkinson’s syndrome, childhood Tourette’s syndrome and autism. SFDA and CE in Europe”. In September 2014, the Journal published a cover story, “EFG does the trick,” exposing the scam, “delaying treatment and taking patients’ money by trickery, which is worse than ineffective.” By the Caixin reporter investigation, the U.S. FDA and European CE has not been certified; in the State Food and Drug Administration’s medical device data, the search with “EFG” “brain neurotransmitter” as keywords are no results. The Caixin reporter interviewed various medical experts, and they all thought that the data measured by EFG had “no reference value”. The cover story of this magazine points out that in Beijing alone, there are at least eight hospitals using EFG tests: Beijing Guoji Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Beijing Golden Child Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Beijing Deshengmen Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Beijing Yong’an Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine and Children, Beijing Junyi Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Beijing Guo’ao Psychological Hospital, Beijing Junhai Hospital, and the Third Hospital of the Armed Police Beijing Headquarters. However, after the EFG for depression scam was debunked, some hospitals targeted children with autism and began a new way to make money. “The BNP digital bio-neural repair technology at Guoji Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine looks very “high class”. The company’s main goal is to provide the best possible service to its customers. The BNP advertisement is a series of interspersed with various terms: “With the help of precision digital navigation instruments, digital simulation of the damaged area, and then the application of cutting-edge magnetic ultrasound precise positioning, so that the biological protein genes act in the body of autistic children, through blood, lymphocyte circulation, improve blood circulation in the brain, nutrition, repair damaged brain cells, balance brain neurotransmitter function, new brain neural pathways, awaken the child’s perceptual ability, enhance the feedback function to information, so that the child out of autism.” “It’s a scam 100% of the time.” Dr. Guo Huahua, deputy secretary-general of the China Association of Mentally Handicapped Persons and Their Families and Friends (hereinafter referred to as the Essence Association) and deputy director of the Autism Working Committee of the China Essence Association, commented on this. According to him, about six years ago, there was a research topic in the United States that mentioned the effects of neurobiological protein deficiency on the population. Guo speculated that BNP therapy was the result of that article. Zou Xiaobing is a chief physician at the Third Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University in Guangzhou, China, and an expert in autism in China. His main research interests are in childhood developmental behavior disorders, including childhood autism, Asperger’s syndrome, childhood ADHD, and childhood Tourette’s syndrome. Zou Xiaobing told Caixin that biological treatments, including BNP, “completely lack scientific evidence and are pseudoscience. Take advantage of parents’ eagerness to cure diseases, hype to fool and take advantage of the opportunity to make money”. Guo Yanqing, an autism expert and deputy chief physician at the Sixth Hospital of Peking University and director of the training department of the Beijing Autistic Children’s Rehabilitation Association, said that there are two international “gold standards” for the diagnosis of autistic children, the Autism Diagnostic Interview Scale (revised version, ADI-R) and the Autism Diagnostic Observation Scale (ADOS). The former collects developmental and symptom-related information from the child in the form of a doctor-parent interview, a process that can take anywhere from one to three hours depending on the doctor’s level of practice; the latter mainly involves the doctor observing the child’s abilities and deficits by setting up a specific interactive game, which often takes one to two hours. However, Mr. Zhao and other parents told Caixin that the consultation process at Guoji TCM Hospital was very quick and claimed to rely on a “brain neurotransmitter test” for diagnosis. For a long time, people have wondered what causes the onset of autism. One theory says that autism is a case of “genes raising the gun and the environment pulling the trigger. The biggest breakthrough in the biology of autism in the American Psychiatric Diagnostic Manual, Fourth Edition, is the study of genes, which may be the combined result of multiple genetic abnormalities and may also be related to the interaction of unknown environmental factors with genes. In October 2014, the British journal Nature reported that researchers had recently identified more than 100 genetic variants associated with autism. This result helps to understand the pathogenesis of autism and develop methods for early screening of autism. So far, the World Health Organization and the National Academy of Sciences have made it very clear that autism remains a world medical challenge, with no known cause, no cure and no specific treatment, said Xiaobing Zou and Edward Guo. Most patients will still have symptoms of the autism spectrum in adulthood; through painstaking scientific intervention, especially early intervention, most children with autism can achieve varying degrees of improvement, and some can improve significantly and then have the ability to live, learn and work independently in adulthood. Zou Xiaobing lamented that there are “too many miracle cures for autism, too many to mention, and they keep popping up. Some are under the banner of science, others under the banner of Chinese medicine. Guo Yanqing has also written that “interventions for autism spectrum disorders are themselves full of lies and deception.” He writes that even the interventions that have appeared in academic journals and flourished have brought the illusion of a cure that “is ultimately nothing more than a ‘flower in the mirror’ and a ‘moon in the water’. He also believes that some therapies are “old wine in a new bottle,” packaging old, ineffective techniques and methods, such as magnetic therapy under various names, with trendy ideas that are “up to date. Some are “simply new soap bubbles still waiting to be punctured by empirical evidence,” such as various stem cell transplants, peripheral blood, umbilical cord blood or embryonic interventions. The variety of miracle cures also includes neurotrophic therapy, immunoglobulin therapy, hyperbaric chamber therapy, and Chinese acupuncture. Although there are many names, the common feature is the high price. Stem cell transplantation therapy, which costs at least 50,000 to 60,000 yuan a time, was once used by several hospitals, including the Second Artillery General Hospital in Beijing, to treat autism. It was eventually stopped due to a lack of clinical data to support it and because it violated medical ethics. A few years after the stem cell trend, “biologic therapy” reappeared in the world. At first, this therapy was called “APS” and claimed to “implant biological proteins and nerve growth factors into the child’s acupuncture points in a special way to repair his nerves”. The representative hospital is Hongci Children’s Hospital in Baoshan Road, Shanghai. In Zhengzhou, the biological treatment at the Police District Hospital and the Air Defense Hospital is called “Neuron Activation System” and “Tranquilization and Deafness Therapy”. In Beijing, the biological therapy is called “BNP”, and the representative hospital is Beijing Guoji Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine. Beijing Golden Child Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine, which also advertises biological therapy, has developed another masterpiece in recent years – the “exclusive brain-awakening four-dimensional therapy”. The two “ace doctors” who treat autism at Beijing Guoji Hospital are Chu Lanju and Liu Haoran. According to the website, they both have more than 40 years of clinical experience and specialize in treating pediatric autism, mental retardation, childhood epilepsy, tic disorder, hyperactivity, enuresis and other developmental and behavioral problems with innovative methods and exact results. However, the Caixin reporter entered Liu Haoran and Chu Lanju on the website of the National Health and Family Planning Commission of the People’s Republic of China, as well as the region and medical institution Beijing Guoji Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine, but only information about Chu Lanju could be found, and the physician category was “Traditional Chinese Medicine”. The result of the query Liu Haoran is “no query to the eligible practitioners”. The Caixin reporter transformed the provinces, in addition to Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan, 31 provinces (autonomous regions, municipalities directly under the Central Government), the query results are “no query to the eligible practitioners”.