China: Baidu's new scandal.

Tao — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 06:29:04 +0000

CCTV reported that Baidu, referred to as China's Google, had accepted money from illegal medical companies and placed their Web links on top of search results. Baidu’s marketing employees were also reported to have the knowledge of these.The service is called page-rank bid and accounts for more than 80% of the company’s revenue. The company’s business model, “which inserts ads in the natural search result without notice, has long been criticized for destroying the integrity of the search engine,” adds China Daily.On previous milk scandal, Baidu was said to have censored news in exchange for payment from dairy companies, said ChinaSmack. CCTV reports page-rank bid of Baidu. The price of Baidu has lost 37.5 percent after the state TV reports that companies, including unlicensed medical firms and hospitals, pay Baidu in order to appear around the top of keyword search results. However, Beijing News viewed CCTV's reports from another aspect:

有时候很难分别企业是不是合法，因为非法企业可能伪装得很好，蒙骗了央视或者百度。央视对百度的曝光，从某种意义上说就是两家企业竞争广告市场份额。在百度未兴盛之前，央视等传统媒体的广告份额很大，网络的兴盛使得百度这样的企业也能从央视抢广告份额。所以笔者看来，央视曝光百度很容易理解，这至少有两个方面的好处，一是作为媒体的功能所在；二是降低竞争对手的信誉以便争取市场份额。

Sometimes it's hard for CCTV or Baidu to pick out illegal companies because of their “excellent camouflages”. In a sense, CCTV's action to expose Baidu actually reflects their market share competition. Before Baidu grew into a search giant, traditional media like CCTV controlled a large share of the ad market, while as the internet thrived, shares were reallocated. Therefore, CCTV's intention to expose Baidu's scandal is easy to understand in two ways: first, as a media, CCTV is under “obligation” to expose information. Second, CCTV can reduce the credibility of its competitor in order to fight for more market share.

After CCTV reports, Baidu unveiled its response quickly in a conference call with analysts last night and promised to design a new system that more clearly separates its paid links from ordinary search results.China Journalreports.

“We are doing this because we care. It is important to us. We want to be a responsible corporate citizen,” said Baidu chief executive Robin Li.

Tianya blogger 阿杜在线 updu.com.cn calls for regulations to supervise powerful companies like Baidu.

只有一只独大，才会导致垄断、才能取得话语权、定价权，才有恶意屏蔽的资本。但是一支独大的现象是不可避免的，因此就更加需要媒体的监督，也需要相关法律法规来制约。

Only unilateral power can lead to the monopoly status that enables the company to obtain the monopolized right of say and pricing, and have the strength to screen what it dislikes. But the occurrence of such power is inevitable, so there should be more supervision of the media and restrictions by relevant laws and regulations.

常平changping has another comment.

很多网站都是从纯商业起家，尽管它们从一开始就发挥着信息发布、观点讨论的功能，却没有传统媒体职业规则的负担，可以相对单纯地考虑商业运作.

Many websites starts from pure business. Although they have always played a major role in publishing information and organizing discussions, they seldom take the responsibility of traditional media but more focus on simpy running their business.

China: Should Lin Jiaxiang be charged of assaults?

Tao — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 03:33:42 +0000

Lin Jiaxiang, (CPC) party secretary of the Shenzhen maritime bureau in the Guangdong province of China, is the target of an investigation after he allegedly grabbed an 11-year-old girl in an attempt to molest her. Jiaxing was reportedly drunk and to have asked the 6th grade girl for directions to the restroom at the Plum Garden Seafood Restaurant where he was dining. He proceeded to grab her by the throat and tried to coax her into the men's restroom.

Restaurant video recorded the poor11-year-old girl running back into the dining area after the alleged attempt to molest her took place .(The video below is censored now, and for browsing the website, proxy is required)

嘉祥猥褻女童后與家長的爭吵被酒店錄像記錄

Lin Jiaxiang's notorious response to the girl's father who questioned him for what Lin had done angered Chinese netizens. Here's what he said when the girl's parents confronted him:

“Do you know who I am? I am from the Ministry of Transport. I rank as high as your mayor. How dare you fight with me.”

without any sense of shame, he tried to bribe the parents ,saying:

“Yes I did it, so what? How much do you want, just tell me. I'll give you the money.”

Lin Jiaxiang was dismissed on November. 3 by ministry of transport. However, Lin was announced innocent of the assault charge today. Public is not satisfied with the judgment. A “whether Lin should be pardoned” poll is made by Xinmin net.

截至11月6日14时，近2000名网友参与调查，约95%网友对警方结论表示”气愤”，主张搜集证据对林嘉祥”定罪且重罚”，仅2%的网友表示”尊重深圳警方的定性”。

Until 14:00 November 6th, nearly 2000 netizens have participated in the poll. 95% of them were “mad” about police's conclusion of Lin Jiaxiang's case, and they advocate collecting more evidence to convict Lin of crime and to punish him severely. Only 2% of those voters said that they would like to respect Shenzhen Police's decision.

According to Shenzhen Late Post, police gave five reasons to deny the assault charge.

1:林确实与小陈有肢体接触，但接触部位仅限于肩膀靠脖颈位置

Although Lin touched the body of the girl surnamed Chen, the contacts were limited to the near-neck part.

2:小陈摆脱林嘉祥的地点距离洗手间约有8米远，但只能看到洗手间的指示牌，还看不到洗手间的门口.

The place where Chen broke off Lin is 8 meters from men's toilet. Though Chen saw the toilet sign, she didn't see the door.

3:林嘉祥身高1．79米、体重103公斤，小陈身高仅为1．48米，小陈能够摆脱林的双手，表明林当时在小陈肩膀靠脖颈处施加的力量有限。

Lin Jiaxiang heights 1.79 m and weights 103kg while Chen is only 1.48 m tall. On such an occasion, Chen's escape proved that Lin used limited strength to grab Chen's throat.

4:现场监控探头摄录到的内容中未发现林嘉祥有猥亵的举动，这与当事人双方对有关肢体接触情况的陈述能够吻合。

Restaurant video doesn't show Lin Jiaxiang's assault to Chen, which coincides with neither Lin nor Chen's statements about their bodily contacts.

5:经现场勘查及模拟事发经过，证实林嘉祥、小陈途经转往洗手间方向的转角处的时间极为短暂，小陈在此处挣脱林的双手后即转身跑步离去。

After on-sight investigation and simulation of the incident, it's confirmed that the time Lin and Chen took to walk across the toilet corner was very short. And Chen ran away immediately after she broke off.

Although the key evidence to charge Lin Jiaxiang, that is, the video at toilet door which taped what actually happened, was mystically lost, public believe Lin's crime is obvious.Here's what Xinhua net says.

首先必须明确的是，诸如强奸、猥亵这类的违法犯罪行为，尤其是在犯罪未遂的情况下，最是缺少直接证据的。这是此类违法犯罪案件的普遍规律。从这个意义上讲，警方非要找到林嘉祥猥亵小兰的“直接证据”才予定案，表面上看是严格依法办案，而实质上却是(至少客观上)纵容了违法犯罪嫌疑人，对受害人是极不公平的。

First, one fact has to be clear: crimes like rape, sexual assault, especially an attempted but uncommitted one, usually lack direct evidence. At first glance, it seemed in accordance with law that police should convict Lin only if direct evidence is available. However,police's decision in fact connived at Lin's crime, which was unfair to the victim.

小女孩在事后表现出了精神受到严重刺激、心理受到严重伤害的症状，不敢见外人，不敢上学读书，甚至发誓永远不去大酒店吃饭，这些都印证了对小兰猥亵行为的存在。

With the experience, the girl showed symptoms of serious psychological strikes and injuries, such as being afraid to meet strangers, afraid to go to school, and even swearing never to eat in any restaurant again. These can prove that there were insults to the girl.

Global Voices » Tao

China: Baidu's new scandal.

China: Should Lin Jiaxiang be charged of assaults?