Lee can `Google' in China

Lee Kai-fu (李開復), Google's new man in China, is fresh from what appears to have been a court victory over Microsoft. And he is already talking about his plans to set up Google's research and development center in this country.

"Primarily, we're interested in hiring top computer scientists," he said last week. "And I'm employee No. 1."

Microsoft had sued Lee and Google in a Washington state court in July, accusing him of violating a noncompetition clause in his employment contract when he defected to Google in July. On Sept. 13, Judge Steven Gonzalez ruled in Seattle that Lee, a former Microsoft executive, could begin working for Google, which had called Microsoft's suit a "charade" and said it was really an attempt to scare other Microsoft employees away from leaving to join competitors.

The case gained widespread attention because of the heated rivalry between Microsoft and Google, which are both seeking to expand in China.

For the time being, the judge restricted what kind of work Lee, 43, could do for Google. Many of his duties will involve hiring and recruiting in China.

Microsoft executive said they also saw the ruling as a victory, saying that the goal of its suit was to keep Lee from divulging its trade secrets.

In court papers, Lee had some tough words for Microsoft. He detailed some of the company's "missteps" in China, saying, for example, that Microsoft had often angered and embarrassed Chinese government officials and that he had often been forced to apologize for Microsoft's actions.

But now, Lee, an engineer and speech-recognition expert who helped Microsoft set up its own research and development operation here in 1998, declines to talk about his old employer.

"I don't want to say anything more," he said of the legal case. "I think Microsoft is a good, respectable company. I did what I had to do to defend myself in that case."

For Lee, there was a bonus from the case: It has helped attract attention to his new book, Be Your Personal Best, a self-help guide for Chinese college students.

The book, which has already sold about 10,000 copies in Chinese, tells students, for example, how to take advantage of the best of both East and West -- how, for instance, to blend an Eastern sense of humility with Western assertiveness.

Lee, who was born in China but raised in Taiwan and the US, said he had spoken to about 5,000 students since coming to this country a few weeks ago to promote the book, which was published by the People's Publishing House. The group was set up by Mao Zedong (毛澤東) in 1950 and is better known for selling the writings of the former Communist leaders Jiang Zemin (江澤民) and Deng Xiaoping (鄧小平).