China: news censorship: Yahoo becomes tool of Hu Jintao in locking up critic of Internet censorship, Shi Tao

I won't write much of an intro to my compilation of live-links from editor J.D.McGuire's marvellous blog, China e-Lobby (plenty of live links below), nor at this time a response with thawts evoked as I reflect on the following items that develop a very important story, one news-hound McGuire has been pursuing for us over recent months. - Politicarp

China: Foreign investors & tech firms

China e-Lobby, November 14, reports an initiative by US investors in China and the international press-freedom organization, Reporters without Borders:

Investors call on technology firms to stop aiding Communist crackdown: Some major international investment corporations “representing over US$21 billion in holdings” (Epoch Times) called for “an increased commitment to freedom of information by major Internet and technology companies.” The statement, started by Reporters Without Borders, comes in the wake of Yahoo’s role in the Shi Tao arrest.

[As background to the above: Nine earlier items from past China e-Lobby daily editions referenced in the most recent item above, from his archives, by writer-editor McGuire].

1.) November 8: The China Support Network* prints in full, dissident Liu Xiaobo’s open letter to Yahoo Chairman Jerry Yang condemning the firm’s role in the arrest of Shi Tao. Gary Feuerberg, Epoch Times, reports from the Heritage Foundation’s forum on press freedom in Communist China. Brian Marple, also in Epoch Times, talks to Jung Chang, author of Mao: the Untold Story. Economist-turned-dissident He Qinglian details how Communist China's economy is fueled by debt, and will eventually drown in it (Epoch Times). *China Support Network

2.) October 25: More on human rights in Communist China: Matthew Forney, Time Asia, suggests, convincingly, that the Communists’ “white paper” on democracy* is more a deliberate rejection of outside calls for freedom than a false claim to providing it. Rebecca MacKinnon (Rconversation, Oct 21*) finds the cadres’ battle to control the internet is, sadly, going very well. Tom Zeller, New York Times (via International Herald Tribune), examines the latest surge in anger at Yahoo’s sellout of Shi Tao. Reporters Without Borders (via Boxun) rips the continuing imprisonment of Straits Times reporter Ching Cheong.

*Communist China issues “democracy” white paper (Oct 19, 5th item): The Hu regime showed some rhetorical ledgerdemain with a new white paper allegedly on “democracy and political reform” (BBC). However, the actual goal the Communists set out was “socialist democracy with its own characteristics” – i.e., Communist tyranny by another name. To those who do put faith in the Communists’ willingness to democratize itself, this quarter offers one word: Taishi. [A county in China where a mass protest was put down with a massacre of the population by the authorities. - Politicarp]

3.) October 4: More on Communist China and the Internet: Washington Post blogger Jefferson Morley comments on Yahoo’s collaboration in Shi Tao’s arrest. The Epoch Times reprints a paper delivered by Erping Zhang, Executive Director of Association for Asian Studies, on the cadres’ cyber war with the Chinese people. Shihoko Goto, UPI via Washington Times, writes on the argument over control of the world wide web, ignores the Communist China’s role, and thus scores the Ignorant Comment of the Day.

4.) September 19: Enlightened Comment of the Day: Today’s winners of this new prize are the editors of The Washington Post for their part-confession, part-missive on Yahoo’s abysmal behavior regarding Shi Tao):

This is not merely an abstract business ethics issue: Yahoo's behavior in China could have real consequences for U.S. foreign policy. Over the past two decades, many have argued – ourselves included – that despite China's authoritarian and sometimes openly hostile government, it is nevertheless right to encourage American companies to work there. Their very presence has been thought to make the society more open, if not necessarily more democratic. If that is no longer the case – if in fact, American companies are helping China become more authoritarian, more hostile and more of an obstacle to U.S. goals of democracy promotion around the world – then it is time to rethink the rules under which they operate.

5.) September 12: Yahoo still trying to spin its way through damning Shi Tao case: Jerry Yang, Yahoo’s co-founder, insisted his firm did nothing wrong in helping the Communists find and arrest reporter Shi Tao. Yang parroted the company line: Yahoo followed the law. That led to the Title of the Day, from Edward Lanfranco (United Press Int’l via Washington Times): “The China Yahoo! welcome: You've got Jail!” John Simpson, BBC, also weighed in (although the piece is subpar).

6.) September 9: Yahoo defense ripped: Yahoo’s rather pitiful defense of its action in the Shi Tao arrest led Human Rights in China’s Nicolas Becquelin to raise a second point with the firm: the role of Yahoo’s Hong Kong division. Becquelin notes that even Yahoo’s unethically flimsy defense falls apart if the Hong Kong office was involved, because: “In Hong Kong a company will not be under any legal obligation to collaborate with an investigation by mainland authorities” (Cybercast News). Of course, if the Hong Kong branch was involved, it would be evidence not just of corporate cravenness, but also of what this quarter likes to call one country, one-and-a-half systems.

7.) September 8: Yahoo tries to justify aiding in Shi Tao’s arrest amid boycott call: After getting ripped by Reporters Without Borders for helping Communist China find and arrest journalist Shi Tao, internet firm Yahoo meekly said it “must ensure that its local country sites must operate within the laws, regulations and customs of the country in which they are based” (Cybercast News), i.e., since we’re in a police state, we’re going to help the police against dissidents. In response, Privacy International “called on Internet users to boycott Yahoo” (ZD Net, UK) – yours truly may very well change the e-mail address as a result. Meanwhile, RWB and Human Rights in China called on President Clinton – in Huangzhou for an internet conference – to raise the issue in his speech there (Cybercast News).

7.) September 7: Communist Chinese arrest of journalist aided by Yahoo! Reporters Without Borders blasted internet firm Yahoo! for “supplying information to China which led to the jailing of a journalist for ‘divulging state secrets’” (BBC). Yahoo! gave the Communists “information that helped link Shi Tao's personal e-mail account” to a computer from which he sent a message that “warned journalists of the dangers of social unrest resulting from the return of dissidents on the 15th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre.” Shi Tao has been in jail since last November (Boxun).

8.) May 6: Follow-ups on Shi Tao and the Falun Gong-Hong Kong case: John Nania, Epoch Times, provides the background on the recent reversal of the convictions against Falun Gong practitioners demonstrating in Hong Kong. Xinfei, also in Epoch Times, does the same on the plight of imprisoned reporter Shi Tao.

9.) May 2: Media crackdown sends reporter to prison as 60 publications join banned list: Communist China’s General Administration of Press and Publishing ordered the shutdown of 60 newspapers and magazines, in addition to the 395 magazines and 282 newspapers where publication “has ceased” (Epoch Times) under Communist orders. Meanwhile, the cadres sent a financial reporter to prison for ten years for “illegally providing state secrets to foreigners."* His real crime was more likely his “Internet essays advocating reforms to China's one-party system.”

*May 1, 2005: Washington Times, Reporter sentenced for leaking secrets - Beijing, China - "A Chinese journalist who worked for a financial newspaper was sentenced yesterday to 10 years in prison on charges of giving state secrets to foreigners. ¶ "Shi Tao's family said the sentence was the minimum possible under his March conviction "illegally providing state secrets to foreigners." They said the maximum was life in prison.

"Shi worked at Contemporary Business News, a financial publication, and was convicted of leaking the contents of a confidential memo at the paper to a foreign publication. Besides working as a journalist, Shi also published Internet essays advocating reforms to China's one-party system."