Originally published October 9 2005
China's growing technological ties are not stopping human right violations
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
While democratic and "free" countries seem to be making a lot of money by partnering with China, high-profile human rights cases are making it difficult for companies like Yahoo! to turn a blind eye to government suppression.
Proponents of greater foreign engagement also see another benefit: They expect the Middle Kingdom's transition to a market-based economy will help loosen the authoritarian societal controls exerted by China's Communist Party.
Whatever their personal opinions, you won't find American technology execs going out of their way to lecture their hosts about human rights.
The usual explanation is that it's none of our business and the Chinese wouldn't listen, anyway.
Shi got sentenced to 10 years in jail for e-mailing an internal Communist Party message to foreign media.
Last week, Reporters Without Borders said it had documents implicating Yahoo in the journalist's imprisonment.
The watchdog organization said Yahoo turned over information that Chinese authorities used to trace the message to Shi Tao's e-mail account and computer.
Elsewhere, Google reportedly filtered its Chinese-language site to omit news banned by the authorities.
But the difference here is that Reporters Without Borders charged Yahoo with active collaboration that led to someone's imprisonment.
When the news broke, Yahoo's first response was to duck behind a scandalously amoral statement claiming that Yahoo was required to adhere to local regulations and customs.
A few days later, co-founder Jerry Yang finally admitted the part his company played in the Shi Tao affair.
"I do not like the outcome of what happens with these things," Yang said while attending a conference in China.
China's business elites have a stake in not rocking the boat.
Nothing's preventing the Recording Industry Association of America from putting the squeeze on local Internet service providers around the country to divulge customer data so the music industry can wage its antipiracy jihad.
After all, many of the founding members of this community had their world view shaped by the communal and libertarian outlook of the 1960s.
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