File Photo of Wei Meng

 Wei Meng, Principal at DCM, a global venture capital firm, has reportedly died after fainting during a training course on Saturday night, igniting heated arguments over whether the training program uses mind controlling techniques.

Wei, 32 years old and mother of two children, died in the early hours of Tuesday, Chinese news site finance.sina.com.cn reported. She passed out in class on Saturday when participating in LEGACY, a training program provided by a Beijing firm called Chengquan Culture. "The course is close to mind controlling. [It] amplifies weaknesses and negative feelings to enable control," according to the report, citing unidentified sources familiar with the matter.

She was lambasted for failing to take care of her children and being busy at work, pushing her to collapse in an emotional breakdown in class on Saturday.

An emergency call was made on the scene and the woman was sent to Chaoyang Hospital for treatment, according to a statement by LEGACY.

Wei joined DCM in July 2014 managing a wide portfolio including investments in video platform Kuaishou, popular Chinese dating app Tantan, and Musical.ly, a short video app acquired by ByteDance for $1 billion in Nov 2017 and upgraded to TikTok later on, according to her Linkedin profile.

The tuition fees for Chengquan Culture courses are high, with a three-phase program that only runs for a few days costing 70,000 yuan ($10,802.13), according to finance.sina.com.cn. . 

A netizen who took the course recalled the experience on Chinese question and answer website Zhihu as a five-day session with a huge mental pressure and obsessed with self-denial . On the graduation ceremony on the fifth day, participants dissolved in tears and hugged each other vigorously. This was only followed by a new round of enrollment.

Back in 2007, multiple secret investigative reports by media outlets, including the Chengdu Economic Daily, uncovered a program suspected of forced brainwashing which includes three phases: exploration, breakthrough and leadership training. It pitches itself as aiming for an improvement and a breakthrough in your life.

The program highly resembles one  of Chengquan Culture's products. However, further evidence is required. 

A statement by Wei's husband Li Bo was circulated online, claiming however that the purported mind control, brainwashing and the course Wei took smacks of pyramid selling were all seriously inaccurate.

Global Times