February 15, 2006
WASHINGTON - Google and Yahoo found themselves denigrated as tools of China's
Communist government in a congressional hearing Wednesday that led Yahoo to
apologize for inadvertently assisting in the arrest of a Chinese dissident and
Google to state that it could abandon China if censorship causes major business
disruptions.
The two Internet giants were among four computer companies summoned to Capitol
Hill to answer questions and face rebukes for their business activities in
China, which have involved acquiescing to Chinese censorship laws.
The hearing - and the withering criticisms directed at the four - put into stark
relief the complexities and compromises facing the high-flying Internet
companies as they try to follow traditional American exporters in building
global brands.
Unlike automakers or consumer products marketers, when companies like Yahoo and
Google do business in countries with repressive regimes, they at times are
accused of being complicit in supporting censorship and stifling political
dissent.
This is an even more sensitive issue for the Internet companies because of the
powerful image they have cultivated as champions of open communication.
Indeed, the central question of the hearing - and the conundrum before these big
businesses - was whether they have a moral obligation to reject China's demands.
Yahoo received a stinging admonition for turning over e-mail account information
that led to the imprisonment of a Chinese dissident, Shi Tao. A Yahoo affiliate
in China provided the information without requiring a court order from Chinese
authorities.
Google came in for perhaps the strongest criticism at the hearing. The Internet
giant launched a China version of its search engine that blocks users from
obtaining information about the Tiananmen Square massacre, the Falun Gong
religious group, and other topics banned by Chinese censors.
"This makes you a functionary of the Chinese government," U.S. Rep.
Jim Leach, R-Iowa, said after eliciting testimony from Google's representative
indicating that the company models its list of forbidden search terms directly
from those on official Chinese search engines.
[...]
During the course of the hearing, aides to U.S. Rep. Chris Smith, R-N.J.,
circulated the draft of a bill that would limit the China activities of
U.S.-based Internet firms, and the U.S. State Department on Tuesday announced
plans to lead a new international task force that would promote free expression
on the Internet.
Smith's bill would require U.S.-based Internet companies to locate their
computer servers outside of China, presumably out of the reach of Chinese
censors. The proposal seems tailored to block censors from seizing computer
files and arresting dissidents who use the Internet to, in the view of
authorities, foment social unrest in China.
However, operating from outside the country could eliminate crucial business
opportunities, including selling local advertising.
Smith acknowledged that any actions must be carefully considered, given that
U.S. companies have invested more than $30 billion in China. Smith and other
representatives argued that the censorship problem cannot be solved simply by
placing limitations on U.S.-based Internet providers. U.S. government action and
coordinated industry action will be needed, they said.
The policy proposals come after a string of embarrassing disclosures about
various ways in which U.S.-based Internet companies have accommodated Chinese
censors, decisions that have led in some cases to the arrest of Chinese
dissidents. Besides contributing to the arrest of Shi and another dissident, Li
Zhi, Yahoo also has signed a pledge of "self-discipline," promising to
follow China's censorship laws.
Microsoft blocks sensitive terms from its MSN search engine. Last December, it
also shut down the blog of Zhao Jing, who called on reporters for the Beijing
News to walk off their jobs after an editor was fired for reporting news of
unrest in southern China.
Cisco sells the computers that make China's Internet work. Congressmen at the
hearing sought unsuccessfully to elicit testimony indicating that the company
also provides training to China's security forces on how to block search terms
on the Internet.
Perhaps the most outraged response came from U.S. Rep. Tom Lantos, from San
Mateo, Calif., near Silicon Valley, who is also a Holocaust survivor and
outspoken human rights advocate.
"These captains of industry should have been developing new technologies to
bypass the sickening censorship of government and repugnant barriers to the
Internet," Lantos said. "Instead, they enthusiastically volunteered
for the Chinese censorship brigade."
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Category: Falun Dafa in the Media
