US Cong raps Internet Cos on China policies

Joel Rothstein and Paul Eckert

WASHINGTON: US lawmakers lashed out at Google Inc. and other prominent Internet companies on Wednesday, with one Democrat questioning "how your corporate leadership sleeps at night" because of the companies' alleged complicity in human rights abuses by the Chinese government.

As representatives from Google, 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, the ranking Democrat on a House International Relations subcommittee on human rights. Lantos' California district includes the high-tech empire of Silicon Valley.

The Republican chairman of the subcommittee, Chris Smith of New Jersey, held the hearing 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 last 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 has also angered human rights activists by shutting down the blog of a critic of the Beijing government.

Smith used a laptop to show how a search for "Tiananmen Square" on Google turned up images of tanks and carnage from the 1989 army killings while entering the same term in the new Chinese site led to pictures of smiling tourists.

New bill expected



Smith said he planned to introduce a bill this week to formalize the goals of a new State Department task force to help American technology companies 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.

"If a company allows itself -- in its filtering capability -- 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 US tech firms stressed the difficult trade-offs they make in doing business in China's huge market, 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.

Yahoo senior vice president Michael Callahan acknowledged that the Shi Tao case "raises profound and troubling questions about basic human rights." He said Yahoo protested the case with China.

The executives said Internet firms needed to work with each other and with the U.S. government to hammer out a broader approach on human rights and business issues in China.

Some lawmakers indicated that Congress must consider practical issues of diplomacy and trade when negotiating with a powerful competitor like China.

"The US trade deficit with China shows that while we value the potential of their market, they value the reality of our market," Adam Schiff, a California Democrat, told Reuters. "It is in this area that we should use our leverage."

© Reuters