Frankly, I wonder why Dr Ng stayed at Baidu so long.

Without question, Baidu's dominance over search plays two very painful roles: 1) they're the cutting edge of China's online civilian spy apparatus, and 2) they're the gatekeeper for news and dissemination of gov't propaganda. If you search the web or visit links sponsored by Baidu, either you will find what the government wants you to find or you will be identified as an outlier, and at best, labeled as a potential threat and tracked. It's impossible to imagine that Baidu does not place the names of web denizens matching certain profiles on threat databases thus altering the trajectory of their lives accordingly (and invisibly).

Personally, I can't imagine anyone of conscience working long for an employer so committed to diminish the freedoms of thought and speech. I applaud Dr Ng for his departure.