Date: September 8, 2005 4:16:08 AM PDT
Subject: [Spy News] Web of complicity
8/dl0802.xml&sSheet=/opinion/2005/09/08/ixopinion.html
Web of complicity
(Filed: 08/09/2005)
Yahoo, the American internet giant, stands accused of helping Beijing to
send a dissident journalist to prison for 10 years. The company is said to
have supplied the authorities with computer records proving that Shi Tao had
posted on the internet an internal government document banning the Chinese
media from commenting on last year's 15th anniversary of the Tiananmen
Square massacre.
It is easy to understand why Yahoo should have wished to co-operate with the
Chinese government. The company recently invested some £550 million in the
Chinese internet sector. It had its shareholders to consider, as well as its
undertakings to abide by Chinese law. Why, the company may have asked
itself, should Yahoo have felt any duty of confidentiality to an individual
customer who was knowingly breaking the law of the land - no matter how
offensive that law may appear to Western eyes. From a strictly legalistic
point of view, Yahoo may have felt that it had no more duty to protect Mr
Shi than to shield a pedlar of child pornography from the consequences of
publishing his filth on the internet in Britain.
But the affair still leaves a foul taste in the mouth. The Chinese
government is one of the most oppressive regimes on Earth, clinging to power
by the ruthless suppression of any sort of dissent. Western companies - and
Yahoo is by no means alone in this - have shown themselves much too ready to
ingratiate themselves with this odious regime, in the hope of cashing in on
the vast Chinese market. They may tell themselves, to assuage their
consciences, that the best way of opening China up to liberal Western
influence is through trade. But that liberal influence will be felt only if
Western companies - and Western politicians, too - have the courage to
assert their principles. There is something indecent about the sight of
Yahoo, sucking up to the Chinese government - and Tony Blair, larking about
with a football in Beijing to please his hosts - while Mr Shi and so many
brave men like him suffer horribly for trying to tell the world the truth
about their country.
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