Top public relations executive at Chinese technology firm Baidu apologizes after sparking backlash
HONG KONG (AP) — A top public relations executive from Chinese technology firm Baidu apologized Thursday after she made comments in a series of videos that critics said glorified a culture of overwork.
Baidu’s head of communications Qu Jing sparked a public outcry in China after she implied in the videos that she was not concerned about her employees as she was “not their mom” and said she only cared about results. She also said that the relationship between her and her subordinates was purely an “employer-employee relationship.”
The backlash was swift, with many on social media platforms like Weibo criticizing Qu for her lack of empathy.
Qu posted an apology Thursday on her private WeChat account, where she “sincerely apologized to all netizens” and clarified that she had not sought Baidu’s permission before posting the videos.
Qu said that her short videos did not represent Baidu’s stance. Baidu operates China’s dominant search engine as well as Ernie Bot, an artificial intelligence service similar to ChatGPT.