Death of Wei Zexi

Wei Zexi (Chinese: 魏则西; pinyin: Wèi Zéxī; 1994 – April 12, 2016) was a 21-year old Chinese college student from Shaanxi who died after receiving DC-CIK, an experimental treatment for synovial sarcoma at the Second Hospital of the Beijing Armed Police Corps, which he learned of from a promoted result on the Chinese search engine Baidu.

Baidu shortly came under fire for allegedly selling listings to bidders without adequately checking their claims. Wei's death led to an investigation by the Cyberspace Administration of China of Baidu's pay-for-placement and advertisements.

Treatment and death
Wei was diagnosed with synovial sarcoma, a rare form of cancer that affects tissue around major joints. As an attempt to cure the cancer, Wei searched on Baidu to get through a promoted result to discover the Second Hospital of the Beijing Armed Police Corps, a state military-run hospital, which was then trusted by his family because it had been "promoted by one of the military hospitals which are considered credible, and the attending doctor had appeared on many mainstream media platforms". Wei went through four treatments at the hospital, spending upwards of 200,000 yuan ($28,950 USD) with his family, but the treatments proved unsuccessful, and Wei died on April 12, 2016. Before his death, Wei accused Baidu of promoting false medical information, and he denounced the hospital for claiming high success rates for the treatment.

Controversy
Following Wei's death, several Internet users expressed disgust and anger over Baidu's malicious advertising practices, forgoing other search engines like Sohu and Sogou over Baidu. On May 2, 2016, the CAC started investigating Baidu for their infamous role in Wei's tragic death, noting his death "drew widespread attention from Internet users".

The search engine's shares fell almost 14 percent in the days following reports of his death in early May 2016.