Yahoo's apologies won't free
dissidents By Poon Siu-to
HONG KONG - This month, Gao Qinsheng,
mother of Chinese journalist Shi Tao, who is
serving a 10-year jail term in China for alleged
political crimes, met Yahoo chief executive
officer Jerry Yang in the United States on the
sideline of a US Congress hearing regarding
Yahoo's decision to release information to the
Chinese government that led to Shi's imprisonment.
"You just said in the hearing that your
mother brought you from Taiwan to the free world
of the United States and created the
conditions for your success.
So you, as good a person as you are, why did you
think that if Shi Tao was also an outstanding
person you instead helped the evil laws that threw
him into hell?" Gao asked Yang.
These
words are rational and reasonable and when spoken
by Shi's mother, particularly powerful. For Yang,
the moral condemnation was especially heavy and
for the second time he made a face-to-face apology
to Gao.
Shi Tao is a poet and a journalist
in mainland China. Until his arrest he was a
senior editor of Dandai Shangbao (Modern Business)
newspaper based in Hunan province in south China.
In April 2004, Chinese authorities ordered all
media across the country not to report anything
related to the 15th anniversary of the June 4
Tiananmen crackdown in 1989. Shi sent a copy of
the authorities' ban to overseas friends via
e-mail and it was subsequently posted on the
Internet. He and another dissident Wang Xiaoning
were arrested and convicted after the Chinese
government used e-mail service information
provided by Yahoo.
This outraged public
opinion in the West which has accused Yahoo of
working hand-in-glove with the Chinese government.
On November 6, the US Congress held a hearing in
which congressmen severely criticized Yang and
Yahoo. What the House of Representatives Foreign
Affairs Committee wanted from the Yang hearing was
a promise that Yahoo would not cooperate with
future requests from foreign governments for
information that might be used against political
dissidents. At a minimum, committee members wanted
Yahoo to pay for its past cooperation with the
Chinese government.
At the hearing, Yang
apologized to Gao Qinsheng and Wang's wife Yu
Ling, and, according to US media reports, on
November 13 Yahoo settled a lawsuit filed by the
families of Shi and Wang for an undisclosed
amount. But Yahoo refused to vow to reject future
requests for information relating to political
dissidents. Yahoo argued that doing so would put
its employees in those countries at risk of arrest
for failing to comply with the laws of those
governments.
Apologies and money are not
going to free the detainees and undo damages that
have been done. It is hoped that in future Yang
will really devote his efforts to help win the
release of Shi and Wang in an effort make amends
for his previous faults.
The Yahoo
incident leads us to review the issue concerning
the social responsibility of multinationals in the
wake of globalization, and particularly their
relations with the Chinese government. As many
studies have pointed out, the financial strength,
power and influence of multinationals in fact are
even stronger than governments of medium-sized
countries. This is no exception in China.
In the past two decades, China has
developed into an investment heaven for
multinationals. China's pursuit of foreign
investment and its preferential policies towards
foreign investors have enabled these transnational
giants to reap huge profits. Their high-ranking
executives not only enjoy the red-carpet
receptions from the government, but they have also
established extraordinary relations with top
Chinese leadership.
In a
"business-friendly" China, these multinationals
with abundant finances, resources and access to
overseas markets have always been welcomed guests
of the local governments. For local officials,
being able to attract investments from
multinationals is meant to greatly boost the
reputation of their regions and gain more foreign
capital. This adds credit to their job performance
evaluations. For instance, several former chief
officials of Suzhou city in Jiangsu province were
all promoted due to the remarkable growth in the
foreign investment and gross domestic product in
the city. Speculation now is that former Suzhou
party chief Wang Min is likely to become the China
minister of commerce in the near future.
Against such a background, regional
competition to lure investments from
multinationals has been pushed to a climax. On the
local economy and civil policy making, business
moguls often hold greater influence than the
central government whose orders often cannot "go
beyond Zhongnanhai" (headquarters of the central
leadership) as they are often ignored by local
authorities.
However, the Yahoo case will
make multinationals think twice before they decide
to sacrifice their conscience for the sake of
making money. Otherwise they can face stiff
criticism by the international community.
It is hoped that these multinationals can
draw a lesson from the Yahoo incident and even
better perhaps become powers in pushing forward
China's reforms by teaching Chinese officials to
behave according to international standards,
instead of always saying "yes" to the Chinese
government. Only then will Shi Tao and Wang
Xiaoning not suffer their 10-year imprisonments
for nothing.
Poon Siu-to is a
Hong Kong-based freelance writer for the
Chinese-language edition of Asia Times Online.
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