As the city lockdown in Shanghai, China, where Corona 19 is prevalent, continues for the 20th day, an executive of Chinese IT company Alibaba is known to have left Shanghai through a personal network and boarded a flight to the United States, causing controversy over preferential treatment.
Alibaba's chief researcher and vice president of technology, Yangqing Zhao, posted on his Facebook page on the 14th in English, "I was under strict quarantine in Shanghai for the past 18 days, and now I have left Shanghai and returned to the United States."
“Through personal connections, I was able to get to the airport at 4 am by taxi and board a flight to the United States,” said Zhao Yangqing. “The last 72 hours in Shanghai were the most unforgettable experience of my life.”
Chinese netizens saw Yangqing's post and strongly criticized him for mobilizing his 'connections' and violating quarantine rules and leaving Shanghai.
In addition, some expressions that Zhao Yangqing used to describe her quarantine life showed a negative reaction, saying that it contained a point of view that criticized China's 'zero corona' policy.
This is because Jay Yang Qing used critical vocabulary on Chinese quarantine policies such as 'strict quarantine', 'food shortage', and 'social media riot' in his post.
The controversy related to Jay Yangqing sparked a heated debate on Weibo on the 15th, with more than 200 million views.
Chinese netizens commented that his post was "contempt for China's quarantine policy and
As the controversy spread, Zhao Yangqing deleted the Facebook post in English and posted a post in Chinese to explain it.
He said, "When I bought a ticket (to the United States), after the quarantine had expired, I proceeded in the normal way and did not need special approval. claimed.
Yangqing Jaya, a graduate of Tsinghua University, a prestigious university in China, led Facebook AI platform research for three years from 2016.
Since then, he joined Alibaba in March 2019 and has been responsible for research and development of big data computing platform as Vice President of Technology.
(Photo = Weibo capture, Yonhap News)