China’s top health authorities, the National Health and Family Planning Commission, have announced on its website today that it plans to investigate a Beijing-based hospital over the death of a 21-year-old university student.

Wei Zexi, a student at Xidian University in northwest China’s Shaanxi Province, died from synovial sarcoma, a rare cancer of the soft tissue, on April 12 after seeking treatment in the Second Hospital of the Beijing Armed Police Corps.

His death has provoked heated public debate on the search engine Baidu and the hospital.

Wei had previously been treated with chemotherapy, but when he researched the disease on Baidu, the country’s biggest search engine, he found the Beijing hospital was listed second from the top on the first page of search results.

Wei then went to the biological treatment center of the hospital for treatment, which cost his family more than 200,000 yuan (US$31,000) but failed to cure him.

The media reported on Monday that the biological treatment center was not part of the hospital but was subcontracted to a private company in violation of regulations.

Wei’s death also provoked great public anger over Baidu's paid listing practice. The system, under which an advertiser pays Baidu for each time an ad is clicked, has long been a major source of the search engine’s revenue.

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