Chinese Tycoon Dies After Eating Poisoned Cat Stew SHANGHAI - There was one very disagreeable ingredient in the steaming hot pot of stew that may have killed a Chinese tycoon. And it wasn't the cat meat. The police have detained a local township official on suspicion that he murdered the tycoon, a business associate who may have caught him cheating, by dropping a poisonous herb into a cat-meat hot pot, a shared stew that is a local delicacy, China's state-run news media reported Wednesday. The case became an online sensation after the police said they had detained the local official, Huang Guang, who had also been hospitalized with food poisoning after the Dec. 23 lunch, in the city of Yangjiang in southern Guangdong Province. The police now suspect that Mr. Huang slipped Gelsemium elegans, a poisonous herb, into the stew while eating lunch with Long Liyuan, 49, who ran a forestry company, and another friend. To avoid suspicion, Mr. Huang apparently ate some of the stew himself. All three men were hospitalized, according to the police account, and Mr. Long died almost immediately. The police discovered evidence that Mr. Huang had embezzled money from Mr. Long, and detained him on Dec. 30. The police accuse Mr. Huang, who served as the deputy director of the Bajia Township Agricultural Office, of taking the funds after helping Mr. Long acquire a forestry leasing contract in the region.