User:Peopledailychina/sandbox/Wei Zexi Event

Wei Zexi Event Wei Zexi event is a massive-scale public denouncement of China’s search engine provider Baidu company (NASDAQ: BIDU) at the beginning of May, 2016, after Baidu’s promoted search results reportedly caused the life of a young 21-year-old college student named Wei Zexi. Wei Zexi was a computer science major at Xidian University in northwest China’s Shaanxi province. In the year 2014, he was diagnosed with synovial sarcoma, a rare form of cancer. He found the Second Hospital of the Beijing Armed Police Corps through the search engine Baidu, on which the hospital has been promoting itself. The treatment, claimed by the hospital to be originated from Stanford University, tried to use cells generated by Wei’s own immune system to fight against the cancer, but it proved to be unsuccessful. After Wei’s family spending around 200,000 yuan (around 31,150 USD) for treatment in the hospital, Wei Zexi died on April 12, 2016. On February 26, 2016, Wei Zexi posted his experience on question-and-answer website Zhihu, a Chinese equivalent of Quora, in an answer to the question “What do you think is the greatest ‘evil’ of human nature?” “The fact is, this technique [the special treatment Wei Zexi received at the said hospital] has been ruled out during clinical trial due to ineffectiveness,” Wei wrote on Zhihu. The incident triggered massive online discussions after Wei’s death. People’s Daily, China’s official newspaper of Chinese Communist Party, published “Commentary: Death of college student raises questions on Baidu’s ethics” on May 1.''

Baidu, being put in the eye of a public-relations storm after Wei died, said that the hospital has submitted valid certificates. On May 2, 2016, Cyberspace Administration of China, the top watchdog for China’s Internet space, said it has dispatched a team of investigators to Baidu. The hospital has so far been closed.China Focus: Investigation into Baidu after student death, Xinhua News, 2016 The case is still ongoing.