PR director at Chinese Twitter analogue Weibo detained on bribery and fraud charges
- Reference: 1628679725
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2021/08/11/weibo_pr_director_arrested/
- Source link:
State-owned [1]Global Times said PR exec Mao Taotao was fired and blocked from future employment with the Sina Corporation microblogging website.
An internal memo was sent to staff and [2]republished in the media accusing Taotao of "seriously [harming] the interests of the company." The memo said Sina is assisting with the investigation and confirmed the exec is no longer an employee.
[3]
An automated online translation of the memo reads:
Facing the temptation of interests, he lost his principles and fell behind the bottom line.
The memo also claimed the company was demonstrating a "zero tolerance attitude towards fraud."
[4]Alibaba fires manager accused of sexually assaulting colleague
[5]Chinese state media describes gaming as 'spiritual opium' that stunts education and destroys families
[6]Tencent suspends signups to WeChat, citing 'security upgrade' and need to comply with Chinese laws
[7]Beijing further tightens its grip on local web giants with 'Network Security Review Measures'
China's government has increasingly cracked down on big tech companies and is always enormously intolerant of corruption.
Sina Weibo is indeed a big tech company, pulling in almost $459m in [8]Q1 2021 , a 42 per cent year-on-year increase.
[9]
News of the arrest came a day after another Chinese tech giant, Alibaba, was widely criticised for internal procedures that failed to muster a decent response to an employee's attempt to [10]report alleged sexual assault by a colleague. ®
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[1] https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202108/1231061.shtml
[2] https://www.fonow.com/news/286270.html
[3] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/legal&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2YRP0NKNPwYYeeG8pI@NPCAAAAI0&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[4] https://www.theregister.com/2021/08/09/alibaba_fires_manager_alleged_sexual_assault/
[5] https://www.theregister.com/2021/08/04/china_gaming_spiritual_opium/
[6] https://www.theregister.com/2021/07/28/tencent_suspends_new_wechat_accounts/
[7] https://www.theregister.com/2021/07/12/one_million_app_users_that/
[8] http://ir.weibo.com/news-releases/news-release-details/weibo-reports-first-quarter-2021-unaudited-financial-results
[9] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/legal&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44YRP0NKNPwYYeeG8pI@NPCAAAAI0&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[10] https://www.theregister.com/2021/08/09/alibaba_fires_manager_alleged_sexual_assault/
[11] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
PR
China's government has increasingly cracked down on big tech companies and is always enormously intolerant of corruption.
I doubt this has anything to with corruption, just classic apparatchiks in-fighting dressed to be palatable to the casual western reader. However you wrap a turd, inside it is still a turd.
"he lost his principles..."
Well yes, clearly they lost their principles. I mean they worked in PR after all.
"China's government [..] is always enormously intolerant of corruption"
That's funny, I've heard I can't count how many tales of how companies wanting to implement in China had to literally pay they way to get things done in any semblance of a reasonable timeframe.
Has that really changed ?
Re: "China's government [..] is always enormously intolerant of corruption"
No, its not changed (unless its a very, very recent change) - backhanders all the way down when I was last chatting with friends who work heavily in China / with Chinese companies - they were still paying plenty of bribes in July (last time we chatted).
It's govt firmly letting big tech companies know that govt in charge.
As long as your corruption fits within state sanctioned corruption model (& the right people get their kickbacks) then business as usual .... except for occasional purges of someone high up & then their corruption / kickback chain either gets handed over to someone else or a persecution of the chain members occurs (when it can get nasty).
Re: "China's government [..] is always enormously intolerant of corruption"
No, it hasnt changed, the sentence is just missing the addendum.
"China's government [..] is always enormously intolerant of corruption UNLESS they're a member of the Communist Party, who is in good standing with President Xi, and remembers to pay a portion of their corrupt income up the chain."
I guess the author just felt that addendum went without saying...
I wonder what he really did. Criticising Pooh Bear?
Canada
> 'Facing the temptation of interests, he lost his principles and fell behind the bottom line.'
They probably just realised he has relatives in Canada.
[1]Michael Spavor: Canadian jailed for 11 years in China on spying charges
[2]Canadian citizen loses appeal against death penalty
[1] https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-58168587
[2] https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-58141758
Missed, or misdirected, opportunities
'Facing the temptation of interests, he lost his principles and fell behind the bottom line.' Shouldn't that line have been reserved for a corrupt financial official, instead of a social media PR person?