Parents deny accepting huge sum in treatment controversy
The parents of Wei Zexi, a young man who died after undergoing a controversial cancer treatment at a Beijing hospital found through a Baidu search, may file a lawsuit against Baidu if the Internet giant fails to give them a "solution."
"We sent a letter to Baidu on Tuesday to demand that Baidu respond [to Wei's death]. If the company fails to respond within a week, we will sue the company before October," Song Weiqiang, the legal representative of 22-year-old Wei's parents, told the Global Times on Sunday.
Song added that Wei's parents also intend to sue other parties involved in their son's ineffective treatment, including the private biomedical center at the Second Hospital of the Beijing Armed Police Corps where Wei was treated, Kang Xin Hospital Investment and Management Company and Shanghai Claison Bio-tech Company.
Wei, a native of Northwest China's Shaanxi Province, died of synovial sarcoma on April 12. His family said they spent 200,000 yuan ($31,000) on immunotherapy at a department of the Second Hospital of the Beijing Armed Police Corps after finding the hospital's information on Baidu.
On Saturday, Wei's father posted the letter on Zhihu, a popular Chinese question-and-answer website, saying he did so to negate accusations that his family had accepted hefty compensation.
Wei's parents have been waiting for the company to issue a response to their son's death and have received neither compensation nor an apology, said Song.
The letter says that the public has seen Baidu make many changes after Wei's death and the ensuing controversy, noting Baidu founder and CEO Robin Li's claim that his company lost 2 billion yuan because of it. But the letter questions Baidu's determination and sincerity in resolving the issue, saying the company has neglected Wei's parents.
However, a Baidu public relations representative surnamed Li told the Global Times on Sunday that the company knew nothing about the letter.
In May, the Cyberspace Administration of China said Baidu relied excessively on profits from paid listings in search results and did not clearly label such listings as the result of commercial promotion, compromising the results' objectivity and impartiality. The CAC consequently ordered Baidu to devise a new algorithm for search results based on credibility by May 31 and required the company to strictly limit the proportion of promotional content in the first page of search results to within 30 percent.
Baidu also came under fire in January for selling management rights for several disease-related forums to medical companies, filling message boards for patients and caregivers with misleading medical ads.
A poll conducted by sina.com in May found over 90 percent of roughly 34,000 respondents said Baidu should be held responsible for Wei's death and blamed Baidu's search engine optimization system, which prioritizes results for websites that pay for listing services.
