RSSYahoo Target of New Criticism in China
By Ed Oswald | Published April 19, 2006, 11:16 AM
Activists are criticizing Yahoo anew after court documents apparently show information provided to Chinese officials by the portal led to the four-year-sentence of an Internet writer for "subversion." This latest revelation marks the third time Yahoo has been identified as the source for such jailings.
Jiang Lijun was jailed in 2003 after the company confirmed that Jiang was using an Internet e-mail account with activist Li Yibing. Previously, it had been discovered that Yahoo provided documents that led to an eight-year subversion sentence against Li Zhi in that same year, and a ten-year sentence for Shi Tao, who the government accused of leaking state secrets.
Paris-based advocacy group Reporters Without Borders said that it had long suspected Yahoo was the source of documents and information used to arrest its clients. The company approached Yahoo last week, asking them to remove their e-mail servers from China.
According to the group, this is the only way to shield Chinese users from the crackdown by the government against journalists and pro-democracy activists. It also called on Yahoo to stop hiding behind Alibaba, it's partner in the country, to justify its actions.
"Whatever contract it has with this partner, the e-mail service is marketed as Yahoo," the organization said.
In Jiang's case, it is not completely clear if Yahoo was the source of the access code to break into the e-mail account, Reporters Without Borders concedes. Instead, The access code could have been provided by Li, who is suspected of being a government informer.
Jiang was accused of calling the Chinese government "autocratic," that he supported the creation of a Western-style government, and was planning an alternative political party. Additionally, the government accused him of planning a bomb threat to disrupt the Chinese Congress.
Yahoo could not be reached for comment. In the past, the company has defended its actions as necessary in order to comply with local laws.
China's laws are unlike the US's laws so companies have to follow the laws of the countries they do business in, even when it's unpopular.
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"China's laws are unlike the US's laws so companies have to follow the laws of the countries they do business in, even when it's unpopular"
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Exactly !
And, China's laws are necessary for China because it ain't America.
Liberal Western Democracy isn't feasible for every country.
Look at what happen to Iran after democratization: They got a wacko jihadist government looking to take out Israel with nukes in "one storm" !
And democracy in Iraq has only brought civil war and the eventual dissolution of the nation.
It's fun here in the U.S. being able to constantly denigrate our leaders, but this is a luxury many countries cannot afford.
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The Computer Rodent
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|Actually...Pc rat
Israel, with inhumane tactics, has been constantly trying to take over Iraq and Palestine. To get one big happy zionist state.
The statements made by Iran,Iraq and Palestine, regarding Israel, are made in defence.
It's easy to sit on one's 'PC', and conjure judments according to the information you read online. By having been there yourself, one can get the 'actual' picture of what is happening.
David
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"as far as those 'biased doofuses' in the Free French Resistance were concerned"
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Nice false-analogy !
China ISN'T occupied by a foreign army.
Nor are Chinese dissidents akin to the French Resistence [who were largely
Communists with allegiance to Russia rather than to France].
But, hey, what's***ory matter ?
Facts are: Not every country is, can be, or wants to be America.
Western-style democracy would cause China to dissolve into anarchy and
civil war (something it has a lot of history of).
There's no trade-off here. Getting to call your nation's political leaders names,
but losing your nation through the subsequent unrest, is a zero sum game with
~everybody~ as losers !
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The Computer Rodent
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|Where did you get that idea of French Resistance's allegiance to Russia? It's quite wrong, y'know...
As for the rest of your comment - I do agree.
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|You're wrong about french resistance, so you'd better not speculate about it.
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"Where did you get that idea of French Resistance's allegiance to Russia?"
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A widely recognized historical fact.
Of course, we ain't talking here the "Free French" in places like England (i.e.,
Charles de Gaulle).
But the "French Resistance" ~inside~ France prior to liberation.
World War Two propaganda aside, historians recognize that most of the French
acceded to the Nazi's ...often cooperating with them.
The French "underground" obversely was almost entirely comprised of Communists.
Which explains why there was virtually no "resistence" activity within France between
the time of it's occupation until the Germans later invaded the Soviet Union.
"the members of the French resistance
groups were nearly all Communists or,
at any rate, that the Communist groups -
the FTP (Franc-tireurs et Partisans)
and the Front National"
http://www.spartacus.sch...t.co.uk/FRcommunist.htm
"In the summer of 1941, when
Hitler invaded Russia, the
French Communist Party threw
its full weight behind the
Resistance."
http://www.socialistrevi....php?articlenumber=9099
New York Times:
"the French Resistance fighters
who were largely members of the
French Communist Party"
http://query.nytimes.com...9F930A25750C0A963948260
Also See:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/...orld/europe/2247295.stm
http://www.iht.com/articles/1993/01/16/obit_19.php
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The Computer Rodent
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|"Paris-based advocacy group..."
Don't care what biased doofuses have to say.
Yahoo is doing the right thing by reporting illegal activities, plain and simple. Why, may I ask, is that a problem?
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|If one has a problem with the laws, they have a problem with Yahoo not only abiding, but helping to enforce them.
In case you missed it, there are a lot of folks who believe any form of co-operation with the chinese government is a human-rights violation, or at the very least damning proof of support for human-rights violations.
*shrug*
Some folks also need to be a bit less judgemental of situations in which they are not at all involved, but...
You've been here a while, you know how it works.
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|Marshal Philippe Pétain, head of the Vichy French Regime during WW2 which was essentially a puppet state that collaborated with the Nazis, could not have expressed your sentiment more succintly!
And as far as those "biased doofuses" in the Free French Resistance were concerned...they should have cleaned up their illegal activities as well! Plain and simple! Well, simple minded anyway!
Yup, since you have now enlightened us, them Yahoo (and probably Google) dudes certainly are slackers! ;-O ;-)
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|Can you hook a newbie up?
HAH!
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|they should just make a new addy for every new email submission..
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|Sounds like still more need to discover the advantages of Tor (Torpark.com) used in conjunction with Firefox (and possibly encryption - if they can obtain it) on a flash key!
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|Or...
They could...
..I dunno...
...maybe *not* use public mail-servers?
Just a thought...
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|And within China, the private 'non-public' mail servers beyond the reach of the Chinese government's reach are?????
It's a rather short list!
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|Self-installed.
http://www.merakmailserver.com/
As just one example....
A hell of a lot more secure and private than using Yahoo...that's for damn sure.
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|Yep! That will fool them!
It's unfortunate that the network monitoring capability of the Chinese government is not as limited as some of the thinking that (should) occur here.
Lots of colleagues there have moved to Tor - no local records and an encrypted tunnel...
Besides, except for the router logs, it works here too and leaves each machine clean as a whistle! Just what kids need in school or visitors need in your workplace!
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|Okay. You're a Tor fanboy. Got it. I'll stop before you blow a gasket, then.
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