An unidentified man dressed as an event assistant emptied an entire bottle of water on Baidu Inc’s CEO Robin Li while he was speaking on stage at Baidu Create 2019, a yearly gathering to review the Chinese company’s advances in artificial intelligence technology.
Clearly surprised, Li took a minute to register what was happening before yelling, “What’s your problem?” in English, while the man walked off stage.
About a minute later, a slightly wet Li calmly resumed his speech. “There are many difficulties on the road to achieve AI, but it will not impact Baidu’s determination,” he said to audience applause.
The Chinese tech giant and its top boss have long been targets of public anger over the search results it provides. The company faced major public backlash in 2016 when a Chinese student died after seeking medical treatment advertised on Baidu’s search pages, reported Reuters.
Meanwhile, Beijing police said a man had been placed in administrative detention on suspicion of picking quarrels and provoking trouble, reported the BBC.
The video has been widely circulated on social media. “No matter how much you hate Robin Li, this is a waste of water,” one Weibo user wrote.
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