(Clearwisdom.net) Forbes.com published an article entitled, "Chinese Delicacy" on February 15, 2006, covering the recent U.S. congressional hearings on the operations of American information technology companies in China. Members of Congress hope that Internet companies make a choice between righteousness and evil, and not forsake good for the sake of gold.
The article asks whether four Internet companies including Yahoo, Microsoft, Google and Cisco are "conduits of free speech or accomplices to torture and oppression?"
According to the article, "On Wednesday in a charged hearing
before the House subcommittee on human rights, executives of the four tech
giants were taken to task by lawmakers who accused them of bowing to Chinese
censors and, in the case of Yahoo, cooperating with the secret police in order
to cash in on the lucrative Chinese market."
The article quoted the accusations of Congressman Tom Lantos, a California
Democrat, of the tech giants, "Your abhorrent activities in China are a
disgrace. I simply don't understand how your corporate leadership sleeps at
night."
"That makes you a functionary of the Chinese government," were the
words of Congressman Jim Leach, an Iowa Republican, to Google Vice President
Eliot Schage, after Schage described how Google set up a computer in China in
order to learn which sites to censor for the China-based search engine it
launched last month.
The article quoted the stance of these tech giants, who say that they are doing
good by working to open up China, but they're not responsible for any of the bad
things that the Chinese government does. "Yahoo tried to wash its hands of
any blame for handing over details to authorities that led to the arrest and
jailing of a Chinese journalist. Both Microsoft and Google said they had little
choice but to comply with the laws of the country in which they are doing
business."
According to the article, "lawmakers were generally unmoved by this last
argument. 'If the secret police asked half a century ago where Anne Frank was
hiding, would the correct answer be to hand over the information to comply with
the local laws?' asked Rep. Chris Smith, the New Jersey Republican and chair of
the subcommittee on human rights."
Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, R-Calif., used the case of Dr. Peter Yuan Li, who
testified before Rep. Smith's hearing. Li, a Falun Gong practitioner who was
recently assaulted by Communist Party agents in his own home, has been
interviewed by the FBI as part of an investigation into intimidation of Falun
Gong practitioners on U.S. soil.
Rohrabacher argued that "the choice was between Americans like Li who stood
up for principles of freedom, or a 'gangster regime that beats people up and
[commits] heinous acts of oppression against its own people. It's your choice.
Unfortunately, it appears like corporate America and you gentlemen have made the
wrong decision.'"
The article concluded by stating that Congressman Smith is proposing legislation
that would establish a basic code of conduct for Internet companies operating in
repressive countries and require them to locate their e-mail servers offshore to
make it tougher for authorities to seize personal information. Such legislation
would also establish an "Office of Global Internet Freedom," which
would combat Internet censorship.