Replacing urine with green tea for medical testing was unethical, even it was for a journalistic investigation, a spokesman for the Ministry of Health said on Wednesday.

China Central Television reported on Monday that a journalist replaced his urine with green tea to do a test in a private-run hospital in Shijiazhuang, capital of Hebei province. The journalist was later diagnosed with several serious diseases based on the test result. The news attracted wide attention.

In 2007, journalists did a similar test in hospitals in Hangzhou, capital of Zhejiang province. At the time Ministry of Health spokesman Mao Qun'an said the urine test machines could not tell whether the sample was urine or not. The ministry has now said their comments in 2007 are relevant to this case.

According to Wang Luxin, a member of the Chinese Society of Laboratory Medicine, even if the sample is tea, the urine test machine could still automatically generate results if the sample had the same or similar materials of urine.

Yan Chunkai, head of the health bureau in Shijiazhuang, confirmed that the hospital has suspended operations so they can rectify the situation.