The new deputy chief of Qianjiang township in Laibin, Guangxi is dead. Zhong Xiefei, on the night of April 9, died while solemnly performing his duty as loyal servant of the people. Let this be a warning for all those in China who aspire for public office… –
Zhong drank too much rice wine at lunch and succumbed to alcohol poisoning –
…you best not be a lightweight when it comes to liquor.
Seven officials who drank with Zhong have been fired.
All this is via SCMP:
Zhong’s family that night found him asleep and snoring loudly, but saw nothing to suggest he had drunk a dangerous amount. He was found dead about 6am the next day.
Losing face is not fatal, but losing to alcohol is: stuff they don’t teach you in Chinese Civics 101, but probably should. If you’re going to play the big-swinging-dick game with liquor, make sure you know what you’re doing.
Chinese official dies after drinking too much first day on the job (SCMP)
If you know that you absolutely can’t get out of the drinking contest, here’s two tips:
1 – pick up a couple packs of activated charcoal pills in gelcaps from the pharmacy and take them all ten minutes before the banquet.
2 – take a bowl of soup as early as possible. Nobody notices the soup level in your bowl as long as it’s not empty. In the guise of slurping soup directly from the bowl, spit out every third glass of liquor.
The soup thing’s brilliant! What do the pills accomplish?
Activated charcoal is what hospital emergency rooms force-feed people who’ve taken poison or pills. It binds to poisons and thus keeps your body from absorbing them.
Poisons like ethanol.