Is Chinese search engine Baidu endorsing Barack Obama?

Or is Barack just fishing for the Asian American vote? (Get it? He's throwing a net? Nets are sometimes used in fishing? Ah, f*ck it. It's late.) Anyway, when we first saw this, just minutes ago (thanks, Sage) we went, "Huh?" Odd, no? Check Baidu out for yourself.

Pacific Epoch tries to explain:

Baidu has chosen US presidential candidate Barack Obama as the sixth face to grace its homepage logo. Following more general features including Hong Kong entertainers and snow storm survivors, Obama comes as Baidu's first foreign installment. In the drawing, a smiling Obama is joined by a dapper donkey as he throws a "net" over the Chinese portion of Baidu's logo.

Why, yes. That donkey sure is ... dapper? Anyway, if you click on the logo, it takes you to renwu.baidu.com, which currently has more info in Chinese than you'd ever care to read about the man who should be the Democratic nominee for president by now.

Also on Shanghaiist
Baidu rolls out a person of a month feature