A self-proclaimed Qigong master was arrested for his alleged involvement in the murder of a disciple, local police in Jiangxi Province said Thursday.
Wang Lin, 63, gained fame not only for claiming to have saved "thousands of lives" through his magic tai chi practice, but also for boasting to have close ties with high-ranking officials and celebrities like former Chinese railway minister Liu Zhijun, Alibaba founder Jack Ma Yun and movie star Jackie Chan.
Wang, who hails from Pingxiang, Jiangxi, is suspected to be involved in the death of one of his closest followers, Zou Yong, a local businessman and also a deputy of the Jiangxi Provincial People's Congress, the Global Times confirmed with the Pingxiang public security bureau.
Zou, who earlier told People Magazine that he had paid Wang 5 million yuan ($804,984), several sports cars and 20 kilograms of gold to learn tai chi from Wang, turned against Wang in 2012 after Wang constantly asked Zou for money. Since then, Zou had been revealing Wang's alleged fraudulent behavior to media and authorities. Wang had denied Zou's allegations.
Police received a call on July 9 saying Zou was kidnapped and arrested two people on July 14 who confessed to murdering Zou, and police suspected that Wang might have ordered the murder.
A post on Wang's official WeChat account says "this is not true" and was signed by "Wang Lin's wife in Shenzhen."
"My husband went to Pingxiang on July 13 and was assisting police on Zou's disappearance," said the WeChat's account on July 16. In 2013, although many media reported Wang was allegedly involved in illegal medical practices and illegally possessing a gun, he was not formally charged and had been living in Hong Kong as a permanent resident.
A note allegedly written by Wang leaked by news website thepaper.cn claimed that Wang had promised a man 5 million yuan if he had Zou killed. The note was written on January 11, 2015, the news website said.
