Critique lands Kai-Fu Lee in trouble
Blockage of Kai-Fu Lee 's Weibo account after his criticism of the People's Daily's search engine highlights the risk of making controversial remarks on sensitive topics in China
Chinese Internet icon Kai-Fu Lee's penchant for controversy is once again splashing into the headlines, this time with word that the former Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) China executive has gotten himself in trouble for criticising the foundering online search engine of a major state-owned newspaper. This latest brouhaha highlights the risk that people who do business in China face when they speak too candidly in public forums about major official organisations like the People's Daily, the official newspaper of the Communist Party.
In that case, I said the poor performance didn't surprise me too much since big state-owned media companies with close ties to the Communist Party had a poor track record for launching successful commercial ventures. But it's one thing when a small potato like me makes some low-profile criticism of a major Party-affiliated organisation, and quite another thing when sharper criticism comes from someone like Lee, whose Weibo account has millions of followers.
One interesting element in all this is who exactly made the decision to block Lee, who previously worked for Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) and headed Google's China operations before setting up his own firm Innovation Works, which incubates technology companies. Weibo owner Sina is a privately owned, US-listed company that often makes its own self-censorship decisions, so it's quite possible that Sina employees took the initiative to block Lee's account to avoid confrontation with propaganda ministry officials. But it's also possible that propaganda officials saw or heard about Lee's controversial posts and directly called up Sina and ordered the company to block his account as punishment.
Either way, the result is the same: the outspoken Lee was prevented from posting to his Weibo account for several days. On a broader basis, Lee's punishment does seem relatively minor since the government could have taken much stronger action against Innovation Works itself. But the case does illustrate that people who do business in China can often find themselves and their companies in trouble due to their outspokenness, especially when it comes in big public forums and involves sensitive matters or organisations.
Bottom line: Blockage of Kai-Fu Lee 's Weibo account after his criticism of the People's Daily's search engine highlights the risk of making controversial remarks on sensitive topics in China.
To read more commentaries from Doug Young, visit youngchinabiz.com