May 7, 1993

Skinpro Calling: Xue Has Really Come To The Party

Eric Ellis, Chengdu

The push of the market in China has created some very wealthy if eccentric entrepreneurs. Eric Ellis, in Chengdu, meets the richest man in Sichuan province.

THE world may not know it yet, but this unprepossessing capital of China's most populated province may well have conquered the AIDS virus. At least, that's the boast of one of Chengdu's favourite sons, Mr Xue Yongxin.

Mr Xue - his name means "forever new" - claims a breakthrough in AIDS research with his Skinpro herbal lotion. He proffers a Harvard University letterhead showing "positive results" from an experiment involving "two healthy black male volunteers and three AIDS female patients (who) used Skinpro lotion before each time of their sexual behaviour".

"Eighteen months later, the clinical observation showed that the two healthy black males were not infected with the AIDS virus, which demonstrated that Skinpro lotion has the function of AIDS prevention."

Indeed, there seems barely an ailment that Skinpro's "magic curative effect" doesn't remedy; everything from washing away spots to curing piles, flatulence, eczema, heart disease, hypertension and "female asexuality". Oh, and it also keeps you warm and prevents unwanted pregnancies.

It has also made Mr Xue very rich. Just ask him.

"I am unique in China," he says. "I have a fortune of RMB1 billion (about $200 million). I think I am the richest man in Sichuan province. I am the biggest taxpayer in Sichuan province." A Mercedes, a Lexus and a Lincoln Continental parked in the company garage testify to his good fortune.

The extraordinary smells that waft through Mr Xue's Enwei factory outside Chengdu, and a catchy advertising campaign, made him rich.

Combining "ancient herbal recipes handed down to me by Taoist philosophers" and folksy slogans, Mr Xue's remedies and preventative potions are famous across the world's Chinese communities and are finding increasing favour in the West. Enwei has associates in Thailand, Britain, Hong Kong, Russia and California.

If he is a snake-oil salesman, he is a likeable one - a rotund, jolly 44-year-old who laughs at his own jokes, a man who has combined Church, State and Mammon to make it big in the new China.

Mr Xue is a Taoist philosopher and his authored tracts sell nearly as well as the herbal remedies from what he calls a "village enterprise", a Deng-ist idea that aims to spread prosperity away from China's coast region.

It is a heady brew in a China where worship and making money are no longer frowned upon by the Communist Party. During the Cultural Revolution, when just about everything was banned except devotion to Mao, Mr Xue was a construction worker. "They didn't know I was practising privately. I broke the party's regulations."

Today, his vice-chairman is a party member and conducts monthly meetings at the plant with the 1,300 employees.

Mr Xue says that although he's not a party member himself, he doesn't mind the communists having influence around the plant.

"They help and give guidance to our production but I am the boss," says Mr Xue.

Enwei has outgrown its cramped factory and a state-of-the-art RMB300 million plant is nearing completion about 10km away. There is is also a new staff compound, surrounding Mr Xue's grand new villa.

Mr Xue is in the process of turning Enwei into the Amway or Avon of herbal remedies, conceiving the Chengdu Enwei Promotion Committee Spreading Sale Manual.

Members can join the Enwei Health Association after proving they have knowledge of the products, Buddhism, Taoism, Confucianism and Western culture and "honestly devote love to others and not have the thought to make fun of others and to cheat consumers". Once the criteria are fulfilled, members will receive Enwei goods for "networking" in the community.

The association has scales of earning; the maximum being 35 per cent of profits plus 15 per cent in bonuses and discounts. If those generous terms cause Australia's Tupperware mums to eat their hearts out, Mr Xue will probably have a potion to fix it. For a price of course.