“The boss is toxic” Baidu PR Vice President’s personal remarks spark controversy

The above-mentioned series of tough-minded and lack of empathy remarks were recently posted by Xu Jing, vice president of Baidu Public Relations, on her personal Douyin account. The relevant content once went viral on the Internet and attracted widespread public criticism. Another video posted online showed that Xu Jing was vigorously beating and pricking a paper figure in the office, and the figure had SCMP ("South China Morning Post") written on it. It was suspected that she was venting her anger over a previous report published by the newspaper involving Baidu.

Agence France-Presse reported on Thursday that Chinese technology giants such as Baidu have long promoted a stifling and abusive corporate culture. As early as 2012, Baidu founder Robin Li vigorously promoted a "wolfish" corporate culture in an internal email to employees.

As a senior executive at Baidu, Xu Jing's behavior has aroused Chinese public opinion's suspicion not only about Baidu, but also about the working atmosphere of Huawei, Xinhua News Agency and other companies where she previously worked.

In response to the public outcry caused by her short video, Xu Jing publicly apologized through Moments and video platforms in the early hours of Thursday morning, saying that the content she posted "does not comply with relevant procedures and does not represent the company's position."

On the Chinese social platform Weibo, some netizens lamented, "I knew you were a grassroots, but I didn't expect that you had already become a grassroots so blatantly." Another netizen said that Xujing's behavior and remarks did not "make the outside world view the company." There was a misunderstanding between values ​​and corporate culture, and she perfectly and accurately interpreted Baidu's values."

Hu Xijin, the former editor-in-chief of the Global Times who often comments on popular current affairs issues, also wrote: "Employees are the carrier and source of motivation for any organization and enterprise. Treating employees well must be one of the firmest mottos of all corporate executives."

According to other online news, Xu Jing was reported internally for collecting the preferences of national public officials and was interviewed by Baidu's human resources department. However, the reporter was subsequently "purged" by the company. As of now, this station is unable to independently verify the above information.

In addition, according to multiple Chinese media reports, Xu Jing has resigned from Baidu. As soon as the news came out, Baidu's stock price rebounded briefly, but then continued to decline.