Robin Li, the Chinese tech billionaire and CEO of Baidu, is inviting foreign workers to come and work in China, according to an article by KITV.com.
“This is a good time for China to stand up and say, ‘Hey, come to us. We like you. We welcome immigrants,’” Li said in an interview with CNN Money.
Li’s statements come as a response to the immigration policies proposed by the Trump administration. If ever approved and implemented, these laws will make it harder for professionals from foreign countries to come and work in the United States.
Although Li has always been a fervent supporter of reforms on China’s immigration laws, it will take time for the government to consider such changes.
China, in general, will also have to overcome several obstacles in order to attract foreign talent to work in the country. One of these issues is the severe air pollution in China, which deters the country from flexing its economic muscles.
Due to strict immigration laws in China, migrant workers are only a tiny minority in the country.
Still, Li remains optimistic. The company he co-founded, Baidu, is the largest search engine in China. The company has been listed on the NASDAQ for over a decade and remains a solid force and major employer in the country.
On the way to the top, Baidu had to beat the competition, including Google, which once made plans to expand operations in China.
“I was actually quite afraid when Google set up their operation in China,” Li told CNN Money. “The most scary thing for me was that they could just offer, you know, triple the salary, for every key employee of Baidu, and I was dead.”
Google wasn’t able to push through with its plans, however, when it came head to head with the Chinese government after refusing to adhere to China’s online censorship laws.