Shenzhen police are now investigating the incident.
A man in China died after he drank a litre of strong liquor in just 10 minutes during a work drinking contest to win a 20,000 yuan (Rs Rs 2,28,506) prize, South China Morning Post. The incident happened in July when the man, identified as Zhang, attended his office’s team-building dinner, where his boss organised a drinking competition. His boss pledged a 20,000 yuan reward for anyone who could outdrink Zhang.
“After Zhang gave his toast at Yang’s table, the latter openly proposed a reward of 5,000 yuan to anyone who could drink more than him,” one of Zhang’s colleagues said. When no one responded he increased the amount to 10,000 yuan (Rs 1.15 lakh).
Zhang then asked about the stakes if he won the contest and his boss Yang told him he would be awarded 20,000 yuan. However, if he lost, he was asked to pay 10,000 yuan to treat the whole company to afternoon tea.
Yang later chose several employees, including his own driver, to compete against Zhang. According to one of the employees who was at the dinner, Zhang downed a litre of baiju within 10 minutes. Notably, Baijiu is a Chinese spirit with a typical alcohol content of between 30% to 60%.
Zhang was soon rushed to the hospital after he collapsed. As per the hospital’s critical condition notice, he was diagnosed with severe alcohol poisoning, aspiration pneumonia, suffocation, and cardiac arrest. He died on August 3.
After his death, a representative announced in the company’s WeChat group that the company would be closed down. Shenzhen police are now investigating the incident.
Recently, there have been similar incidents where people lost their lives to alcohol poisoning. In May this year, a Chinese social media influencer died less than 12 hours after consuming seven bottles of Baijiu on Douyin, China’s version of TikTok. Another popular live-streamer and influencer in China also died in June after gulping down copious amounts of potent liquor.
The influencer named Zhong Yuan Huang Ge died on June 2 after binging excessive amounts of Baijiu, during a viral drinking challenge. Both these deaths sparked huge scrutiny of the safety and regulations of such apps.
