Baidu puts up brave front as rival Google’s China comeback looms

Robin Li Yanhong, the chairman and chief executive of Baidu, said the Chinese online search market leader is looking to beat Google in its return to China, despite increased speculation that the US technology giant could become a major internet player in the world’s second largest economy.

“If Google re-enters the market, it gives us the opportunity to PK with real swords and spears and win one more time,” Li said in a post on his WeChat account on Tuesday that was verified by Baidu. PK is the acronym for “player kill”, a term most often used in online role-playing games, that suggests the death of another gamer’s avatar in a virtual world.

His post followed reports that Google planned to launch new mobile search and news aggregation apps designed to meet China’s strict censorship laws, marking a major shift in strategy for the US company nearly a decade after it exited the country.

Google was also reported to be in talks with Tencent Holdings, Inspur Group and other Chinese companies to bring its cloud services operation in China.

On Monday, People’s Daily, the ruling Communist Party’s mouthpiece, posted a commentary on its Twitter and Facebook accounts that welcomes Google back to mainland China as long as it complies “with the requirements of the law”.