Baidu’s PR head, Qu Jing, has left the quest engine immense upcoming her arguable remarks on paintings tradition exploded on Chinese language social media. The surfacing of a sequence of movies made via Qu has resulted in the population casting hesitancy at the corporate’s company values.
“I’m not even obligated to find out if you cried or had a quarrel [with your boyfriend or husband]which does not serve my concern as a supervisor. I’m not your mother-in-law, also not your mum,” Qu commented in certainly one of a sequence of decrease movies posted on Douyin, China’s TikTok sibling.
All 4 of Qu’s arguable movies at the platform have since been deleted, however clips can nonetheless be discovered on Chinese language social platforms and her feedback have sparked a firestorm of consideration and debate.
Why it issues: The incident has escalated into Baidu’s largest PR catastrophe in years. The corporate, which is dealing with a declining seek engine proportion and is looking for an AI-centric transformation, has seemed to calmness population outrage within the wake of Qu’s feedback.
Main points: Information of Qu Jing’s depart was once reported on Thursday evening, simply hours upcoming she apologized in a put up on WeChat Moments from her private account.
That apology letter didn’t point out Qu’s approaching walk from the corporate, however noticed her explain that the movies “do not represent Baidu’s stance.” It mentioned that Qu didn’t download consent from the corporate sooner than making the movies population.
Qu Jing changed into the vice chairman and eminent of communications at Baidu in 2021, upcoming important population and executive affairs at Huawei and her earlier paintings as a reporter for China’s state-backed Xinhua information company, in keeping with her Wikipedia web page.
In a single video, Qu criticized a Baidu worker who refused to whip a 50-day industry commute all over the peak of the Covid-19 pandemic, when China imposed strict move restrictions around the nation. “How dare you tell me that your husband can’t stand it and needs you back [home]? I’m 10 or 20 years older than you and have two kids, [but] I feel neither bitter nor tired,” she mentioned.
Every other video that went viral overdue Wednesday added gasoline to the fireplace of population opinion, and bringing into query Qu’s skill as a PR eminent. Within the decrease video, Qu was once recorded smacking a tiny paper determine with the letters SCMP written on it, broadly thought to be relating to the South China Morning Publish. The incident is suspected to be Qu venting her rage over a January record printed via the newspaper linking Baidu’s ChatGPT rival ERNIE Bot with China’s army. Then again, TechNode has now not been ready to independently test when the video was once taken.
Context: Baidu, in conjunction with alternative main tech firms in China, has confronted repeated scrutiny and grievance over its so-called wolf paintings tradition in recent times. In some of the impressive examples, in 2019, Alibaba founder Jack Ma got here below fireplace upcoming he referred to the apply of “996”, running from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. six days a generation, as a “huge blessing”.
