Chinese search engine Baidu worked an image of presidential candidate Barack Obama into their home page logo today, as well as a tribute page about the candidate.
From what we can tell it’s very rare for Baidu to dedicate its home page to an individual, and no other U.S. presidential candidate has been so honored. In short, this is an endorsement of the candidate.
Given the tepid relations between the two countries and general U.S. mistrust of China in general, I suspect that the Obama campaign won’t be reaching out to press to let everyone know about the endorsement.
See all
Post
Hilary has got to be loving this! But she still won’t get the nomination so no big deal for Barack.
Ha … I’d appreciate all the support I could get if I was him … I definitely agree that there’s no need to send out a press release about this one though
This is the power of the Obama campaign.
The American image has been tarnished around the world due to our promotion of democracy through violent means.
Now people around the world are captivated by our non-violent democratic process that allows someone like Barack Obama to rise to power.
A positive re-branding of American democracy!
The reason for that logo seems to be that Barack is nomited as the most-impacting person on baidu’s latest renwu release (http://renwu.baidu.com/). There are only six releases so far, and Barack is the first non-Chinese nominate.
Is this still going on? I thought British politics took a long time!!
Just watch what Fox News does with this…
Gee, thanks, Baidu.
lol, yeah.
I am just wondering how many Americans will see this ad for Obama and if it will really help him in his election as I guess nearly nobody from the US uses Baidu
@3
Agreed. Obama looks great in East Europe. Bush is in the news with funny quotes, jokes, etc. Hope Obama can make it to the top.
The interesting part is if some big non US web site with US traffic decides to support some candidate and serves free ads for the whole campaign? Who can regulate this?
The reason for having Barack is mentioned at http://renwu.baidu.com/sbang.html. Translated in English, it said “the power of internet grassroots behind the campaign”.
or “the strength of the internet grassroots behind the election”
Thrilled indeed……………………………………………………………
Yes I suppose we should remind the Chinese that they don’t have free speech. How dare they?
It’s actually something they could partly brag about. It shows that with Obama, the United States could be “liked” again. Just electing him could heal many wounds GW Bush caused…
In other news…so does parslinks.com (Iranian Search Engine)
Baidu would not put Obama’s image if it does not give the company some advantage.
So, its fair to assume that Obama does have better image than Hill and McCain in China.
Obama’s campaign team might want to hold off ordering Chinese takeout tonight to celebrate this event.
I clicked on the Baidu graphics of Obama and it took me to a dedicated page for Obama. But I was stunned by the Chinese headline, which reads (translated): “‘Black Kid’ Obama: Everything is possible!”
This is consistent with Chinese racial stereotypes toward anyone who is non-Chinese; for instance, having lived in that part of the world, I was accustomed to hearing white westerners being referred to as “Big Nose”.
Sadly, most Chinese people actually think there is nothing wrong in calling Caucasians “Big Nose”, or Africans “Black Kid”.
The recent development regarding how they treat Tibetans totally jives with this unfortunate racial attitude of theirs.
Is this Baidu.com really to be held responsible for the political practices of its government?
I mean, if it is then we’re all kinda screwed.
I could have worded that better but I think you get my point.
Perhaps because Hilary has just come and said Bush should boycott the Olympic games, while Obama is still undecided.
http://2008gamesbeijing.com/ob.....-olympics/
This is troubling…
With American jobs going to India and China, this is not something many Americans are going to like.
Especially with the whole Chinese/Tibet thing going on.
Can you say President McCain?
Of course they love him he’s going to sell america to china. Not that they don’t already own us but we own them just as much. So good luck obama hope you lose!!!!!!!!!
Baidu the peoples internet
Saddam would still be in power
A search engine getting into politics… what’s next?
-Please check out my site for ways to make money online http://mikesmoneyclub.blogspot.com
Chinese supporting the Obama candicacy? I bet Hillary is bummed what with all that Chinese support during Bills presidency with campaign donations for certain “information” technology wise….
I also would love to know why so many people are freaking infatuated with wanting to be loved by every communist or socialist country out there?
China’s govt sucks. They kill and imprison people for not toeing the govt line and still play the centuries gone by land wars with Tibet and Taiwan. They can go kiss my freedom loving arse. Obama would be smart to tell China to pound sand.
In case you didn’t notice, the media doesn’t want Obama to be elected, so yes, it will reach the press.
@19: it makes me laugh when I see that H. Clinton and Bush, both supporting the war in Irak now protest against breach of Human Rights in China. That’s hypocrisy at its best.
Am I missing something? That seems actually good because it tells us that other countries will like him as a president. Maybe he can finally get things Done once and for all.
@Alexk
To counter your comment, allowing Saddam to continue with what he was doing is hardly a breach of human rights. Sure there has been issues but please don’t compare the overall quality of our fine men and women in the military with the cowards in China killing monks and religious leaders for not being commies. Its insulting.
i mean NOT allowling Saddam to continue… sorry
@ Erick S,
Despite this nice slip-up, you seem to be part of the 1% of people still thinking that US went to Irak to only kick Saddam’s ass. Let me tell you something, Saddam’s fall was the 3rd or 4th reason driving US decision.
I’m not defending what the Chinese government is doing at all. I personally condemn their acts and do think it’s breach of Human Rights. But don’t compare this with throwing bombs on civilians and be the root reason of 100,000 to 1 million deaths. (and I’m not even considering the hundreds of thousands of Iraki kids that died because of the US embargo).
My point was I just find it very awkward that people that defended war in Irak yesterday and will defend war in Iran tomorrow (i.e. H. Clinton and Bush), basically “top Human Rights breachers”, have the audacity to denounce what is happening is China.
Alexk: Boring, you whole anit Iraq war rants have run hollow. Ok we get it, you don’t think Iraqis should be free, you think Saddam was a better option, but you really don’t need to bring in the conspiracies, false innuendo, distortions of fact just to get off on a Bush rant.
That is so freakin’ awesome. It’s too bad that the Chinese can’t vote in our elections, though.
Any sane American would actually see this as a good thing. Finally someone running for president who is actually already respected. And not just in any ol’ country, but the biggest future trade partner you’ve got. I’ve got to say Michael, I never took you for one so incredibly out of touch with the world as a whole. Or maybe these posts looking outside of America have a slight angle of jealousy to them now that the American economy is coming to a crashing halt and you remember what it did to SV last time around?
Looks like the social and political trends that prevailing in American politics tend to reinforce in other countries politics.
What’s the problem with a company listed in NASDAQ to endorse a candidate? Arrington, when will TechCrunch pick one of the 3 candidates?
http://finance.google.com/fina.....amp;q=BIDU
and yes, I own BIDU as well as GOOG
Commies like the socialist pres. candidate. Anything new?
Oh.. looky, other countries will like us again. I want to be popular again. I want all the boys want to ask me out to the Prom. What is wrong with you people?
Life is not high school.
Being admired by countries whose record on human rights make being waterboarded look like a Sunday afternoon at Chuck E. Cheese is not commendable.
All these countries you people are so desirous of gaining respect from us are our economic competitors, political rivals, and in some cases, out and out enemies.
THEY LAUGH at you when you whine about regaining face on the world stage. THEY THINK you are nothing but NAIVE morons.
Chumps!
I happen to agree.
So, what’s the big deal? A communist government likes our communist (er, socialist) candidate. No surprises there.
Pfft~ No surprise there,
A Viceous Communist country endorsing a communist candidate who sat at the feat of a racist hate-mongering “reverand” for 20 years.
No more evidence needed, Hussein is a danger to individual liberty. Communist China knows an ideological ally when it sees one.
Stop Barck Hussein Obama !!!
*feet
*vicious
Like father, like son, that`s why the evil communist dictatorship of China loves Hussein jr.
Prestopundit found one of Barack Hussein Obama Sr.’s papers on communism:
— 100% taxation
— communal farms / the elimination of private farming
— the nationalization of businesses owned by “Europeans” and “Asians”.
— “active” measures to bring about a classless society
http://gregransom.com/prestopu.....mas-d.html
Contrary to the beliefs of many of yours here, the Chinese Communist Goverment actually prefers the free-trade espousing, big-corporation interest defending republicans. China’s biggest nightmares are the likes of Pelosi, Clinton, and Gere who keep on pounding the biggest Communist regime in the world for its abysmal human right records.
Back to Baidu.com. Obama really has nothing to be “thrilled” about just because he made it to its “Renwu” logo. Renwu in Chinese means “People” or “Public Figure”. The last person that made it to Baidu’s Renwu logo was… some Hong Kong pop star whose sex photos were leaked to the Internet. (And the singer’s amateur photos were so daring, they would make Paris Hilton blush.)
Looks like sex and politics are the universal selling points for the media, huh.
Nonsense from the left. Actually stating the socialists(Pelosi,Reid,Hussein,Clinton,etal) in the USA would attack their ideological brethren in China with economic sanctions in regards to Tibet is laughable.
Totalitarians, from Hussein,Pelosi etal, to communist China will do anything for power. In China it is the breads and circuses of materialism and in the USA it is hoping for defeat in Iraq, promising largesse of any sort regardless of cost.
Gotta love the radical socialist leftists, they`ll lie anywhere anytime because we know whatever they say, the opposite must be true:
“A Republican lawmaker said Monday that Democrats in the state Legislature are blocking his resolution seeking to condemn China for the recent violence in Tibet.
With the resolution stuck in committee, Blakeslee says the Democrats who control both houses of the Legislature are ignoring his plea for a floor vote before Wednesday’s torch run. “
The only reason Baidu put Obama up on the banner is that Hillary Clinton asked President Bush to boycott Beijing Olympics Opening Ceremony. (the news is on front pages of all major chinese portals). The Chinese don’t love Obama more than Clinton. They just hate anyone who disturbs the comming Beijing Olympics.
well, i’m from china, but i dont think so, we love obama only bcoz he loves peace.
Who knows if Baidu’s post has anything to do with Obama’s socialist leanings… but, it is interesting.
How freaking inappropriate! If anyone cared, I’m sure this would boost the Clinton campaign. An apt demonstration of how politically backward and naive Chinese corporations are.
I think I’ll go with the simpler reason of popular searched name on Baidu instead everything else. Probably because of the all the fancy charts and graphs they got there.
Hey all American friends!
We Chinese ppl support Obama as you do, we love his smile.
Thank you all for making the right choose, he is great.
America needs change, our world needs change. Long live the friendship between USA and China! Let’s celebrate!