Net Firms Faulted on China Actions
U.S. lawmakers lashed out at Google Inc. and other prominent Internet companies Wednesday, accusing them of helping the Chinese government violate human rights.
As representatives from Google Inc., Yahoo Inc., Cisco Systems Inc. and Microsoft Corp. looked on, lawmakers from both political parties delivered withering attacks and called for oversight on dealings with China.
“Your abhorrent activities in China are a disgrace. I simply do not understand how your corporate leadership sleeps at night,” said Rep. Tom Lantos of San Mateo, the ranking Democrat on a House International Relations subcommittee on human rights. Lantos’ California district includes the high-tech empire of Silicon Valley.
The chairman of the subcommittee, Christopher H. Smith (R-N.J.), held the hearing in Washington to ask the companies about their procedures in China and demands from the Chinese government.
Last week, Paris-based Reporters Without Borders, an advocacy group for journalists, said Yahoo provided electronic records to Chinese authorities that led to an eight-year prison sentence for writer Li Zhi in 2003.
In September, Yahoo was accused of helping Chinese authorities identify Shi Tao, who was accused of leaking state secrets abroad and was sentenced in April to 10 years in prison.
Google came under fire last month for bowing to Chinese pressure to block politically sensitive terms on its new Chinese site. Microsoft also has angered human rights activists by shutting down the blog of a critic of the Beijing government.
Smith said he planned to introduce a bill this week to formalize the goals of a new State Department task force to help U.S. technology firms protect freedom of expression in countries that censor online content.
The bill will include export controls on certain types of hardware and software and prohibit putting e-mail servers in countries that lack U.S.-style due process laws, Smith said. Cisco makes much of the equipment China employs for filtering.
“If a company allows itself ... to filter terms such as ‘democracy’ and ‘religious freedom,’ they will be in violation of U.S. law,” Smith told Reuters regarding the proposed legislation, which refers to 14 authoritarian countries including China.
The U.S. tech firms stressed the difficult trade-offs they make in doing business in China, where the admission price is following local laws and where aggressive Chinese competitors would celebrate their pulling out.
“The requirements of doing business in China include self-censorship -- something that runs counter to Google’s most basic values and commitments as a company,” said Google Vice President Elliot Schrage.
“In an imperfect world, we had to make an imperfect choice,” he said.
