<span style="font-weight: 400;">Scandals Catch Up to Private Chinese Hospitals, After Fortunes Are Made</span>
Mansions built with wealth from the Putian network of private hospitals, behind a pair of farmers in the village of Dongzhuang in southern China.
莆田私立医院网络的财富在中国南方东庄村的一对农民身后建造了豪宅。
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Bryan Denton for The New York Times
纽约时报的布莱恩·丹顿
PUTIAN, China — Chen Deliang, wearing an orange tunic, a gold watch and fluffy bedroom slippers decorated with snowflakes and the word “Love,” stood proudly in the 130,000-square-foot temple he had built.
中国莆田——陈德良身穿橙色外衣，戴着金表，脚上装饰着雪花和“爱”字样的蓬松卧室拖鞋，自豪地站在他建造的这座占地13万平方英尺的寺庙里。
He had filled it with pagodas, Buddhas and a towering statue of a local goddess.
他在里面建满了宝塔、佛像和一座当地女神的高耸雕像。
There were several wings, with bedrooms and an office where he practiced calligraphy.
有几栋翼楼，里面有卧室和一间办公室，他在那里练习书法。
A chain smoker with a wispy beard, he initially hesitated talking about his path to unimagined wealth, but eventually relented with a matter-of-factness that betrayed no sense of smugness: “I was the first person to create everything.”
作为一个留着稀疏胡须的烟鬼，他一开始不愿谈论自己通往难以想象的财富的道路，但最终他以一种实事求是的态度态度软化，没有任何沾沾自喜的感觉：“我是第一个创造一切的人。”
Nearby his family and friends owned mansions, many several stories tall, rising above the unpaved roads and sweet potato fields of the village of Dongzhuang in southern China.
他的家人和朋友在附近拥有豪宅，许多豪宅有几层楼高，高耸在中国南方东庄村未铺砌的道路和红薯田之上。
They exuded a gaudy opulence — elevators, minarets, gilded gates, fountains with Greek gods.
它们散发着华丽的气息——电梯、尖塔、镀金大门、希腊诸神的喷泉。
Just days before the Lunar New Year, the most important festival in China, Ferraris and Lamborghinis lined their driveways.
就在中国最重要的节日农历新年的前几天，法拉利和兰博基尼停在车道上。
Even in a country where multimillionaires are minted daily, Mr. Chen and his brethren are unlikely testaments to the Chinese dream.
即使在一个每天都有千万富翁诞生的国家，陈先生和他的兄弟们也不太可能成为中国梦的见证。
A middle school dropout turned martial arts performer turned itinerant salesman, Mr. Chen parlayed a remedy to treat scabies into a chain of clinics for sexually transmitted diseases and then into the country’s largest network of private hospitals.
陈先生是一名中学辍学生，后来成为武术表演者和流动推销员，他将一种治疗疥疮的药物变成了一系列性传播疾病诊所，然后进入了中国最大的私立医院网络。
Along the way, his relatives and neighbors in Dongzhuang and the surrounding area of Putian got into the same business and also made lots of money.
一路上，他在东庄和莆田周边地区的亲戚邻居也纷纷从事同样的生意，也赚了很多钱。
“All of us were from Dongzhuang, and one by one, we started engaging in medicine,” Mr. Chen said.
“我们都是东庄人，就一一开始从事医学。”陈先生说。
“It was your relatives, his relatives — all of us were relatives.”
“是你的亲戚，他的亲戚——我们都是亲戚。”
The Putian system, a loosely affiliated network that traces back to Mr. Chen’s initial forays into medicine, accounts for eight of every 10 private hospitals in the country, some 8,000 facilities.
莆田系统是一个松散的附属网络，可以追溯到陈先生最初涉足医疗领域，全国每 10 家私立医院中就有 8 家是莆田系统，约有 8,000 家医院。
Although they don’t all have the same owners, all were started by people with connections to the area of Putian and are members of the same trade group.
虽然它们的所有者并不相同，但它们都是由与莆田地区有联系的人创办的，并且是同一贸易集团的成员。
They offered a vision of the future of medicine, promising everything the old state hospitals lacked, like well-trained specialists, quick appointments at the click of a mouse and state-of-the-art equipment.
他们提出了医学未来的愿景，承诺提供旧公立医院所缺乏的一切，例如训练有素的专家、只需点击鼠标即可快速预约以及最先进的设备。
Public officials praised the hospitals, while big Wall Street firms invested billions of dollars in them.
政府官员称赞这些医院，而华尔街大公司则向它们投资了数十亿美元。
Then came the scandal.
然后丑闻就来了。
A university student died after a doctor at a Putian-linked hospital tried to treat his cancer with a discredited form of immunotherapy.
一名大学生在莆田一家附属医院的医生试图用一种不可信的免疫疗法治疗他的癌症后死亡。
The case prompted nationwide outrage and protests.
此案引发全国愤怒和抗议。
Shares of Putian-linked hospitals plummeted.
莆田相关医院的股价暴跌。
The government announced an investigation into Putian ads.
政府宣布对莆田广告进行调查。
For the Chinese leadership, the death has exposed weaknesses in the country’s health care system.
对于中国领导层来说，这起死亡事件暴露了该国医疗保健系统的弱点。
While public hospitals are subject to tighter scrutiny at the national level, private hospitals like those in the Putian network are largely overseen by local governments, many of which don’t have the resources and expertise to police the medical profession.
虽然公立医院在国家层面受到更严格的审查，但像莆田网络中的私立医院主要受到地方政府的监管，其中许多地方政府没有资源和专业知识来监管医疗行业。
Some hospitals in the Putian group fabricated patients’ testimonies and doctors’ credentials.
莆田集团部分医院捏造患者证言、医生资质。
Others listed false certifications or used outdated treatments.
其他人列出了虚假认证或使用过时的治疗方法。
The Global Times, a nationalist tabloid owned by the official newspaper of the ruling Communist Party, called them “harmful hospitals.”
执政的共产党官方报纸旗下的民族主义小报《环球时报》称这些医院为“有害医院”。
Wu Xidong, executive president of the Putian health industry association, which oversees the group of private hospitals, defended its practices and operations.
莆田健康产业协会执行会长吴锡东为该私立医院的做法和运营辩护。莆田健康产业协会负责监管这家私立医院。
The public anger at Putian hospitals reflected dissatisfaction with poor regulation and the entire health care system, he said.
他说，公众对莆田医院的愤怒反映了对监管不力和整个医疗保健系统的不满。
“The patients still give us recognition, isn’t that correct?” Mr. Wu said.
“病人还是认可我们的，不是吗？”吴先生说道。
“This proves that we have no problems.
“这证明我们没有问题。
The state has also not taken any measures against us, right?
国家也没有对我们采取任何措施吧？
Because our hospitals themselves are very good.”
因为我们的医院本身就很好。”
Mr. Chen, 67, lives a quiet life in Dongzhuang after retiring in the 1990s from the health care empire he created.
67 岁的陈先生于 20 世纪 90 年代从他创建的医疗保健帝国退休后，在东庄过着平静的生活。
He drives his golf buggy around the temple complex, which has a statue devoted to Chen Jinggu, a woman who is revered in the area as the goddess of the land.
他开着高尔夫球车绕着寺庙建筑群转了一圈，寺庙里有一尊供奉陈静姑的雕像，她在该地区被尊为土地女神。
None of the pilgrims seemed to recognize him.
朝圣者似乎没有一个认出他来。
Like other Putian tycoons, Mr. Chen has been keeping a low profile.
和其他莆田富豪一样，陈先生一直保持低调。
He doesn’t want to talk about the scandal but rails against the “misinformation” out there.
他不想谈论丑闻，但对那里的“错误信息”表示不满。
“The reports were nonsense.
“这些报道纯属无稽之谈。
They were a mess,” Mr. Chen said.
他们一团糟，”陈先生说。
“Now, when people go and see a doctor, they’ll ask: ‘Is this a private hospital?
“现在，当人们去看医生时，他们会问：‘这是一家私立医院吗？
Should we go in?’ There’s a question mark.
我们应该进去吗？’有一个问号。
Will they be deceived?
他们会被欺骗吗？
It’s making things difficult for us.”
这让我们的事情变得很困难。”
During the turmoil of the Cultural Revolution, doctors were scarce and medicine was limited.
文革动乱期间，医生奇缺，药品有限。
Scabies, an itchy, highly infectious disease caused by mites, afflicted many Chinese.
疥疮是一种由螨虫引起的瘙痒、高度传染性疾病，困扰着许多中国人。
“It spread like wildfire,” Mr. Chen said.
“它像野火一样蔓延，”陈先生说。
Mr. Chen saw an opportunity, coming up with a homemade remedy — a combination of nitric acid, mercury and vinegar.
陈先生看到了机会，想出了一种自制疗法——硝酸、汞和醋的组合。
Traveling throughout China, he sold it for 30 cents a bottle, 10 times the cost.
他走遍中国，以每瓶 30 美分的价格出售，是成本的 10 倍。
Mr. Chen made about $2,200 a year, at a time when public servants earned about $5 a month.
陈先生的年薪约为 2,200 美元，而当时公务员的月薪约为 5 美元。
“The country’s medical system was so backward,” Mr. Chen said.
“国家的医疗体系太落后了，”陈先生说。
He attracted a core group of disciples, training them in his practice.
他吸引了一批核心弟子，对他们进行修行训练。
“None of us had any medical background.”
“我们都没有任何医学背景。”
For decades, the Communist Party provided the basics.
几十年来，共产党提供了基础。
In the countryside, legions of so-called barefoot doctors, medical professionals with limited training, treated farmers, with the government picking up most of the costs.
在农村，大批所谓的赤脚医生和受过有限培训的医疗专业人员为农民提供治疗，政府承担了大部分费用。
In cities, most Chinese workers received coverage through their employers, state-owned companies.
在城市，大多数中国工人通过雇主、国有企业获得保险。
When China’s paramount leader, Deng Xiaoping, started to open the economy in the late 1970s and introduce market reforms, he took away government subsidies for health care.
当中国最高领导人邓小平在 20 世纪 70 年代末开始开放经济并引入市场改革时，他取消了政府对医疗保健的补贴。
“Barefoot doctors” lost their source of income, and hospitals were left to fend for themselves.
“赤脚医生”失去了收入来源，医院只能自生自灭。
Mr. Chen and his apprentices started renting rooms in small hotels across from bus stations, where there was a lot of foot traffic.
陈先生和他的徒弟开始在公交车站对面的小旅馆里租房间，那里人流量很大。
They posted ads on utility poles to target more customers.
他们在电线杆上张贴广告以吸引更多客户。
In the decades that followed, Mr. Chen and his partners branched out, starting clinics to treat sexually transmitted diseases.
在接下来的几十年里，陈先生和他的合作伙伴开始拓展业务，开设了治疗性传播疾病的诊所。
Prostitution was on the rise, and people were embarrassed about going to public hospitals to be treated.
卖淫现象日益猖獗，人们都不好意思去公立医院看病。
The clinics allowed patients to register anonymously.
诊所允许患者匿名登记。
“S.T.D.s are embarrassing.
“性病是令人尴尬的。
You don’t want anyone else to know,” Mr. Chen said.
你不想让别人知道，”陈先生说。
“You could write down any name — we wouldn’t care.”
“你可以写下任何名字——我们不在乎。”
He and others in the Putian network soon developed a signature style, expanding widely with clinics in nonemergency fields like infertility, dermatology and cosmetic surgery.
他和莆田网络中的其他人很快就形成了一种标志性风格，广泛扩展到不孕不育、皮肤科和美容外科等非急诊领域的诊所。
After clinics, they opened entire hospitals.
继诊所之后，他们又开设了整家医院。
Mr. Chen bowed out of the business in the 1990s, after a car accident.
20 世纪 90 年代，陈先生因一场车祸退出了这个行业。
The network continued to flourish.
网络继续蓬勃发展。
The group got a major boost from the government in 2003, when China granted private hospitals tax-free status for three years.
2003年，中国给予私立医院三年免税地位，该集团得到了政府的大力推动。
Severe acute respiratory syndrome had swept the country, forcing the authorities to scramble to get more hospital beds and build more quarantine facilities.
严重急性呼吸道综合症席卷全国，迫使当局争先恐后地获得更多病床并建造更多检疫设施。
And officials realized the public hospitals were insufficient to care for the rapidly swelling population.
官员们意识到公立医院不足以照顾迅速膨胀的人口。
A decade later, the government, at a meeting of the top party leadership, said it would further encourage the development of private hospitals.
十年后，政府在一次党的最高领导层会议上表示，将进一步鼓励私立医院的发展。
Chen Zhili, former vice chairwoman of the National People’s Congress, wrote a letter to the Putian network in 2014, thanking it for “making positive contributions to the development of private medical care in China.”
原全国人大副委员长陈至立曾于2014年致信莆田网，感谢莆田网“为中国民营医疗发展做出了积极贡献”。
The government backing attracted interest from Wall Street.
政府的支持引起了华尔街的兴趣。
American financial firms like Sequoia Capital and Morgan Stanley have invested billions of dollars in health care companies in the Putian network.
红杉资本和摩根士丹利等美国金融公司已向莆田网络内的医疗保健公司投资了数十亿美元。
Several of the companies listed their shares on the stock exchanges of Shanghai and Hong Kong.
其中多家公司的股票在上海和香港证券交易所上市。
Steven Wang, founder of HighLight Capital, a private equity fund in Shanghai, said he had first heard about the Putian network from his parents, both doctors in public hospitals.
上海私募股权基金HighLight Capital的创始人史蒂文·王(Steven Wang)表示，他是从父母那里第一次听说莆田网络的，他们都是公立医院的医生。
When Mr. Wang visited the city of Putian in 2001, he found a place still mired in poverty, but he was impressed by the spirit of the locals.
2001年，王先生到莆田考察时，发现这里仍处于贫困之中，但当地人的精神给他留下了深刻的印象。
Centuries earlier, the city had been invaded by Japanese pirates.
几个世纪前，这座城市曾遭到日本海盗的入侵。
A massacre followed, and people fled to the mountains.
随后发生了屠杀，人们逃往山里。
They were a people, Mr. Wang said, who could “eat bitterness,” referring to an expression used by Chinese to describe the ability to endure hardship.
王先生说，他们是一个能“吃苦”的民族，这是中国人用来描述吃苦能力的一个词。
Mr. Wang invested $150 million in the Putian-linked Angel Group (China) Holding Company, which runs a maternity hospital in the southwestern city of Chengdu.
王先生向与莆田有联系的安琪集团（中国）控股公司投资了1.5亿美元，该公司在西南部城市成都经营一家妇产医院。
He said the second generation of entrepreneurs from Putian, who followed Mr. Chen and the initial founders, were mostly university educated.
他说，追随陈先生和最初创始人的莆田第二代企业家大多受过大学教育。
So their “knowledge, insights and vision” are different from those of their forebears, Mr. Wang said.
王先生说，因此他们的“知识、见解和视野”与他们的祖先不同。
“They are full of vitality, are keen to learn, are open-minded and want to improve,” he said.
“他们充满活力，渴望学习，思想开放，渴望进步，”他说。
Xing Jiaming was excited in 2015 to start his internship at a marketing firm for Putian hospitals in the cities of Nanjing and Jinan.
2015年，邢家明很高兴开始在南京和济南市莆田医院的一家营销公司实习。
As an economics student, he thought it would be useful to gain some other experience, especially at a fast-growing business.
作为一名经济学学生，他认为获得一些其他经验会很有用，尤其是在快速增长的企业。
Over the previous decade, more than 9,000 private hospitals had opened in China, most connected to the Putian group.
过去十年，中国开设了9000多家私立医院，其中大部分与莆田集团有关联。
During his first week at work, he got a plum assignment.
上班第一周，他就接到了一份很棒的任务。
A doctor had recently left one of the hospitals, and Mr. Xing was assigned to write up the credentials of the doctor’s replacement.
其中一家医院最近有一位医生离开了，邢先生被指派去写替代医生的证明。
The résumé of the replacement was identical to his predecessor’s.
继任者的简历与其前任完全相同。
When the intern asked about the similarities, his boss told him to finish.
当实习生询问相似之处时，老板让他说完。
For the Nanjing Brain Hospital, Mr. Xing said, he was told to promote its treatment success rate as 100 percent.
对于南京脑科医院，邢先生说，他被告知要宣传其治疗成功率是100%。
He also made up testimonials, including one of a woman in Nanjing who was cured of anxiety after going to a Putian-related hospital.
他还编造了一些证词，其中包括一名南京妇女，在前往莆田相关医院后，焦虑症得到了治愈。
“Everything was fabricated by us,” he said.
“一切都是我们捏造的，”他说。
“None of them was a real case.”
“没有一个是真实的案例。”
Mr. Xing said he and his colleagues had been given templates.
邢先生说，他和他的同事已经获得了模板。
“We had to exaggerate the harm caused by the disease,” he said.
“我们不得不夸大这种疾病造成的危害，”他说。
“The more exaggerated, the better.” The company, he said, had a “professional art team” that would steal online photographs of other people and stick them onto testimonials.
“越夸张越好。”他说，该公司有一个“专业艺术团队”，会窃取其他人的在线照片并将其粘贴到推荐上。
“This phenomenon doesn’t only pertain to the Putian network, right?” Mr. Wu of the Putian health association said.
“这种现象不只发生在莆田网络吧？”莆田市卫生协会吴先生说。
“All over the internet, it’s likely that there are many other businesses who engage in that.”
“在互联网上，很可能还有许多其他企业也参与其中。”
Putian tapped the power of the internet to expand, plowing profits into marketing.
莆田利用互联网的力量进行扩张，将利润投入营销。
Liang Jianyong, a former Communist Party secretary in Putian, said the network invested $1.8 billion in advertising on the Chinese search giant Baidu in 2013.
莆田市前市委书记梁建勇表示，2013年该网络在中国搜索巨头百度上投入了18亿美元的广告费用。
It amounted to nearly half the search engine’s advertising revenue that year, according to the National Business Daily.
据《每日经济新闻》报道，该收入占当年搜索引擎广告收入的近一半。
Baidu declined to comment.
百度拒绝置评。
Many of the online marketing materials have a similar feel.
许多在线营销材料都有类似的感觉。
They feature dozens of specialists, with lengthy résumés promoting “abundant clinical experience” and “praise from peers within the industry.” There are glowing testimonials from satisfied patients with emotional narratives.
他们拥有数十名专家，拥有冗长的简历，宣扬“丰富的临床经验”和“业内同行的赞誉”。满意的患者用情感叙述提供了热情洋溢的感言。
One details the case of a father who “knelt down” pleading with the chief doctor at the Putian-linked Edward Hospital, in the far western region of Xinjiang, to treat his 5-year-old daughter.
其中一个细节详细描述了一位父亲的案例，他“跪下”恳求位于新疆最西部地区莆田市爱德华医院的主任医生救治他 5 岁的女儿。
She received treatment that was “the most advanced technology in the world.”
她接受了“世界上最先进的技术”的治疗。
Some Putian hospitals promoted credentials they didn’t have.
一些莆田医院宣传他们没有资质。
Two of the nine doctors advertised on Shenyang Metropolis Hospital’s website are not accredited to work there, according to an analysis of a doctor database run by the National Health and Family Planning Commission, the government agency.
根据对政府机构国家卫生和计划生育委员会运营的医生数据库的分析，沉阳都市医院网站上刊登广告的九名医生中有两名没有在那里工作的资格。
Others tried to make it seem they were affiliated with some of the country’s top hospitals.
其他人则试图让自己看起来隶属于该国一些顶级医院。
Weining He Mu Jia, one of the 8,000 hospitals in the Putian network, had the patina of legitimacy.
威宁和睦家医院是莆田网络中的 8000 家医院之一，具有合法性。
He Mu Jia was the Chinese name of Beijing United Family Hospital, China’s first foreign-owned hospital and one of its most respected.
和睦家是北京和睦家医院的中文名称，该医院是中国第一家外资医院，也是最受尊敬的医院之一。
President Barack Obama and Gary F.
巴拉克·奥巴马总统和加里·F.
Locke, a former United States ambassador to China, graced the covers of Weining He Mu Jia’s magazines.
前美国驻华大使骆家辉登上了威宁和睦家杂志的封面。
A photo of Roberta Lipson, the founder of Beijing United Family Hospital, hung in the Weining hospital’s lobby.
威宁医院的大厅里挂着北京和睦家医院创始人罗伯塔·利普森的照片。
The photo, which was doctored, featured Ms. Lipson at the grand opening of the emergency room expansion of the “Weining United Family Hospital and Clinics.”
这张经过篡改的照片显示，利普森女士出席了“威宁和睦家医院暨诊所”急诊室扩建仪式的盛大开幕式。
The connections were purely show.
这些联系纯粹是作秀。
Despite no relation, more than 20 hospitals in the Putian network have used the Chinese name He Mu Jia or similar variations, according to Ms. Lipson.
利普森女士表示，尽管没有任何关系，但莆田网络中的 20 多家医院都使用了中文名称和睦家或类似的名称。
Her company, Chindex International, has sued six Putian hospitals for trademark infringement, including Weining He Mu Jia.
她的公司美中互利已起诉莆田市六家医院侵犯商标权，其中包括威宁和睦家医院。
“Every single day in the news, there are people on the internet complaining about them, complaining about malpractice, and it’s our name,” Ms. Lipson said.
“每天的新闻中，都有人在互联网上抱怨他们，抱怨渎职行为，这就是我们的名字，”利普森女士说。
Beijing United won the trademark infringement lawsuit against the Weining hospital in 2014.
2014年，北京联合胜诉威宁医院商标侵权诉讼。
But Weining still runs an account on Weibo, China’s version of Twitter, with the He Mu Jia name.
但韦宁仍然在微博（中国版的推特）上运营着一个账户，名字叫“何慕嘉”。
Wei Zexi, a 22-year-old university student, was lured by the promises of a Putian hospital.
22岁的大学生魏则西被莆田医院的承诺所吸引。
With a diagnosis of synovial sarcoma, a rare form of cancer that attacks the tissue in the muscle joints, Mr. Wei had undergone three operations, four chemotherapy sessions and 25 radiation therapy sessions and had taken traditional Chinese medicines hundreds of times.
魏先生被诊断患有滑膜肉瘤（一种罕见的癌症，会侵袭肌肉关节组织），接受了3次手术、4次化疗和25次放射治疗，并服用了数百次中药。
With the help of donations, he bought Keytruda, an immunotherapy drug that is not available in most parts of the mainland, for $5,000 in Hong Kong.
在捐款的帮助下，他在香港以5000美元购买了内地大部分地区买不到的免疫治疗药物Keytruda。
When none of it worked, Mr. Wei desperately looked online for options.
当这些方法都不起作用时，魏先生拼命在网上寻找选择。
A Putian center at a military hospital in Beijing, appearing at the top of his search results on Baidu, offered what seemed like a miracle: an immunotherapy program called DC-CIK.
北京一家军队医院的莆田中心出现在他的百度搜索结果顶部，提供了看似奇迹的东西：一种名为 DC-CIK 的免疫治疗项目。
“As long as you have 1 percent of hope, it is worth using your life to take a gamble,” he wrote in a May 2015 reply to a post on Zhihu, a Chinese knowledge-sharing website.
“只要有百分之一的希望，就值得用生命去赌一把，”他在2015年5月回复中国知识分享网站知乎上的一篇帖子时写道。
A doctor, a specialist for the Putian treatment center, Shanghai Kangxin hospital management company, told him that the DC-CIK treatment had a success rate of 80 to 90 percent and could extend his life by 20 years.
上海康信医院管理公司莆田治疗中心的专家医生告诉他，DC-CIK治疗的成功率达到80%到90%，可以延长他的生命20年。
He touted a partnership with Stanford University.
他宣扬与斯坦福大学的合作关系。
His parents borrowed money from relatives and friends for the four treatments, which cost $30,000.
他的父母向亲戚和朋友借钱进行了四次治疗，总共花费了3万美元。
Within a few months, the cancer had spread to his kidneys.
几个月之内，癌症已经扩散到他的肾脏。
In April 2016, 19 months after he first sought treatment in the Putian-linked hospital, Mr. Wei was dead.
2016年4月，也就是魏先生第一次到莆田附属医院求医19个月后，他去世了。
The DC-CIK treatment had been phased out in the United States because it was largely ineffective.
DC-CIK 治疗在美国已被逐步淘汰，因为它基本上无效。
There was no partnership with Stanford.
与斯坦福大学没有合作关系。
Mr. Wei, according his best friend, Wang Xi, believed the treatment was legitimate because of Baidu’s search results.
据魏先生最好的朋友王曦说，由于百度的搜索结果，魏先生相信这种治疗是合法的。
The influential state broadcaster China Central Television had also once interviewed the doctor who treated Mr. Wei.
有影响力的官方媒体中央电视台也曾采访过为魏先生治疗的医生。
A nationwide scandal erupted after his death.
他死后，全国范围内爆发了丑闻。
The Putian network became the emblem of unfettered corruption within the private health care system.
莆田网络成为私人医疗系统内不受约束的腐败的象征。
Local authorities took particular aim at one of its more egregious violations, operating clinics within other hospitals.
地方当局特别针对其更为严重的违规行为之一，即在其他医院内开设诊所。
The practice had been outlawed years earlier, but many players in the Putian network continued to develop them.
这种做法早在几年前就已被禁止，但莆田网络中的许多参与者仍在继续发展这种做法。
In 2017, a court in Anhui Province said a hospital had violated local regulations by renting out several specialist departments in andrology and dermatology, among others, to a man from Putian, who was eventually forced to shut down.
2017年，安徽省一家法院称，一家医院将男科、皮肤科等多个专科科室出租给一名莆田男子，违反了当地规定，最终被迫关闭。
That same year, the local governments in the provinces of Liaoning and Henan announced crackdowns on the practice.
同年，辽宁省和河南省地方政府宣布严厉打击这种做法。
“China’s health care fraud is pretty rampant,” said Dr. Ma Jun, director of the Harbin Institute of Hematology and Oncology, a public hospital in China’s northeast.
“中国的医疗保健欺诈相当猖獗，”中国东北公立医院哈尔滨血液肿瘤研究所所长马军医生说。
“With China’s private hospitals, there are a lot of traps.”
“中国的私立医院，陷阱很多。”
In October 2016, Chen Zhanghao paid $580 for nasal surgery in the eastern city of Ningbo at what he believed was a subsidiary of Tongren Hospital, a prestigious hospital in Beijing.
2016年10月，陈章浩在东部城市宁波支付了580美元进行鼻部手术，他认为这是北京著名医院同仁医院的附属医院。
He had found the Putian-affiliated hospital on Baidu.
他在百度上找到了莆田附属医院。
According to Mr. Chen, the hospital at the time purported on its website to be a Tier 3 institution, the government’s top classification.
据陈先生介绍，该医院当时在其网站上声称是三级机构，即政府的最高级别。
Later, Mr. Chen learned, through a freedom of information request, that the hospital did not have the designation and was not allowed to conduct that type of surgery, according to a copy of the government’s response to his request, which was viewed by The Times.
后来，根据《泰晤士报》看到的政府对其请求的答复副本，陈先生通过信息自由请求得知，该医院没有该指定，因此不允许进行此类手术。
(The hospital has since removed the classification.)
（医院后来取消了分类。）
Mr. Chen, 25, now has difficulty breathing sometimes because his nose either hurts or is congested, he said.
25岁的陈先生说，他现在有时会呼吸困难，因为他的鼻子要么疼痛，要么充血。
He tried looking for the doctors who had treated him, but they have left the hospital, now known as the Ningbo Yinzhou Tongren Hospital.
他试图寻找曾经治疗过他的医生，但他们已经离开了医院，即现在的宁波鄞州同仁医院。
Mr. Chen has nightmares thinking about his surgery.
陈先生一想到自己的手术就做噩梦。
“I just don’t want to think about it anymore,” he said.
“我只是不想再想它了，”他说。
In March 2017, he joined five other patients with similar problems, protesting outside the offices of Baidu for compensation.
2017年3月，他与另外五名有类似问题的患者一起在百度办公室外抗议，要求赔偿。
They held banners that read: “We are the living Wei Zexis.”
他们举着横幅，上面写着：“我们是活着的魏则西。”
Back at his temple, Chen Deliang defended the health care empire that he founded all those decades ago.
回到寺庙，陈德良捍卫了他几十年前创立的医疗保健帝国。
Mr. Chen said the hospital department that Mr. Wei had visited in Beijing had nothing to do with Putian but was owned by a company from Zhejiang Province.
陈先生说，魏先生在北京参观的医院科室与莆田无关，而是浙江省一家公司拥有的。
He did not elaborate, and corporate records showed otherwise.
他没有详细说明，公司记录显示情况并非如此。
When asked about the fake ads, Mr. Chen defended them, saying all ads need to have an element of “boastfulness,” but added that “it’s impossible that they are fake.”
当被问及虚假广告时，陈先生为这些广告辩护，称所有广告都需要有“夸大”的元素，但他补充说，“它们不可能是假的”。
He said many Putian hospitals had lost money, struggling to get loans and pay their workers.
他说，莆田的许多医院都亏损了，难以获得贷款和支付员工工资。
But when asked how many exactly, he said he could not tell for sure.
但当被问及具体有多少时，他说他不能确定。
“We are not selling fake drugs, nor are we deceiving people,” Mr. Chen said.
“我们不卖假药，也不欺骗人，”陈先生说。
“The government has done nothing to us.”
“政府没有对我们做什么。”
Research was contributed by Zhang Tiantian, Amy Cheng, Tang Yucheng, Elsie Chen and Ryan McMorrow.
研究由张甜甜、Amy Cheng、Tang Yu Cheng、Elsie Chen 和 Ryan McMorrow 贡献。