Did Yahoo Tell All To the US Congress On Its Shi Tao Debacle?

Yahoo again has Congressional problems over its China policies after a document surfaced last week indicating the company did know why Chinese officials wanted to find journalist Shi Tao, whereas the company had previously told Congress it had to respond to a Chinese request for information but didn’t know why the request was made.

A Chinese document, translated, appeared on a web site last week indicating that when China asked for the information it had explained to Yahoo!  that Shi Tao was wanted for investigation of “illegally providing state secrets to foreign entities.”

US House Foreign Affairs Chairman Tom Lantos doesn’t like the sound of that and has now ordered Congressional investigators to get to the bottom of it all. “It is bad enough that a wealthy American company would willingly supply Chinese police the means to hunt a man down for shedding light on repression in China,” said Lantos, who also co-chairs the US Congressional Human Rights Caucus, on the committee’s web site. “Covering up such a despicable practice when Congress seeks an explanation is a serious offense. For a firm engaged in the information industry, Yahoo! sure has a lot of secrecy to answer for. We expect to learn the truth, and to hold the company to account.”

At a February 2006 subcommittee hearing on limits to freedom on the Internet in China, Lantos questioned Michael Callahan, Yahoo! senior vice president and general counsel, about Shi Tao, a reporter and editor for a Chinese newspaper. Shi was arrested in his home after posting material about a government crackdown on media and democracy activists on an overseas Web site, Democracy Forum, under a pseudonym. Police in Beijing found him after Yahoo! provided information about his e-mail account, including his IP address, log-on history and the contents of his e-mail over several weeks.

Callahan said at the hearing that when the company divulged this identifying material, “we had no information about the nature of the investigation.” But last week the San Francisco-based Dui Hua Foundation released documents showing that police had written Yahoo! specifying that they sought evidence about Shi in a case of suspected “illegally providing state secrets to foreign entities,” a charge frequently invoked against political dissidents in China.

Jim Cullinan, a Yahoo spokesman, expressed disappointment that Rep. Lantos "is rushing to judgment on this issue, because the facts will support Yahoo's testimony to Congress."

Sentenced  to 10 years’ imprisonment for divulging state secrets abroad, Shi has appealed the verdict to the Hunan Higher People’s court, arguing that he was unaware that the information was classified and that police used improper procedures in the investigation and arrest. Shi is also seeking damages in U.S. federal court against Yahoo! and its Hong Kong-based subsidiary.

Keywords:media in China,free speech

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