To fight shams, punish those promoting fakes

Editor's note: Liu Hongbin, a self-proclaimed traditional Chinese medicine expert, has come in for severe public criticism after it was discovered that she is not a TCM practitioner and the pharmaceuticals she endorsed on TV programs were actually sham products. A consumer rights lawyer and a journalism teacher share their views on the issue with China Daily's Wu Zheyu:

Even real experts can't promote medicines

Many netizens have described Liu Hongbin as a "performing artist" disguised as a TCM practitioner to sell sham pharmaceutical products. The social consequences of Liu's promotion of sham TCM products might already be severe, because many people, especially senior citizens, believing in her claims could have been using them for some time.