Baidu must make definitive changes to regain public trust

ON TUESDAY, Li Yanhong, chairman and CEO of domestic online search engine Baidu, issued a letter to all staff about the results of the recent investigation into the death of a college student, which concluded the search engine had played a role in the young man's death. Beijing News commented:

In the letter Li said he was moved to tears. We do not know how he managed to move himself, but his words obviously failed to move readers, as there has been hardly any positive reaction to his letter.

The public expected Li to apologize and correct his company's wrongdoings, but he only boasted of Baidu's "glories" instead. Worse, he tried to persuade the public with 1960s-style sentences even though this year is 2016. That only makes his persuasion annoying.