Time to end pay-for-placing searches

THE CHINESE INTERNET COMPANY BAIDU has once again come under fire for its search engine listings, this time for promoting unofficial online visa agencies. ThePaper.cn comments:

Yan Feng, a professor at Shanghai’s Fudan University, claimed that when searching “Turkish visa” on Baidu, the first two search results led to the website of a company offering e-visa services. The cost of getting a visa via the agency was double that of Turkey’s official e-visa website.

The same thing happens when a search is done for Italian or Spanish visas. Sometimes there are so many advertisements in the search results that the first page is full of them and one has to click “next page” in order to reach the official website of the country one wants a visa for.

Baidu claims that the visa agencies websites are marked as advertisements to avoid confusion. But this is a small disclaimer that can easily be missed.

Such ad rankings help to generate revenue for Baidu as it charges for the listings.

But this practice can have serious consequences. In 2016, Baidu was heavily criticized after its search results led 20-year-old Wei Zexi to an unqualified hospital that cheated him out of all his money with unnecessary and ineffective treatment for a fatal disease.

Two years later, Baidu has still not corrected its wrongdoing. Even though the Advertisement Law clearly forbids search engines ranking search results according to the amount of money paid by the listers.

The reason is obvious: The penalties for Baidu’s illegal deeds are too light to persuade it to stop the practice.

Each time it receives a mild fine, which it can easily cover by simply selling more listings.

And the problem involves not just Baidu but the whole domestic online search industry, with other search engines similarly selling their search ranking results.

It is time to put an end to the pay-for-placing practice.

The long-arm law enforcement in this case is more political than judicial. China should be clearheaded that the trade conflict the US initiated is only a pretense of its true intention of starting a “technology war” with its foremost competitor.

From ZTE in April to Fujian Jinhua Integrated Circuit Company in October, and Huawei in December, Washington’s tactics have become evident. It aims to strike at China’s innovative enterprises.

It is almost predictable that Huawei will not be the last Chinese company that the US will target. The US must have a well-prepared plan for waging this campaign, but China is still considering its countermeasures as if the actions of the US are merely skirmishes. China has never put any competitive US enterprises in its cross hairs, instead it welcomes them.

Although the US is grabbing for a yard after taking an inch, China still shows great restraint in separating the detention of Meng Wanzhou from the ongoing “trade friction” with the US, as it is making every effort to defuse the tensions.

But that will not prevent a fourth Chinese enterprise being targeted by the US. Now is the time for China to prepare for the next strike from the US and even organize effective and low-intensity counterattacks, if necessary, to defend its bottom line and dignity. It should discard any lingering illusion it may have that the US will cease and desist.

Nevertheless, it is almost predictable that Beijing will continue to practice its strategic restraint as it does not seek to challenge the global leadership of the US, and is always ready to agree a truce.

China firmly believes that the interests of the two countries are interwoven and that the trends of history are on its side. Which consolidates its confidence with its strategic choices.