By John Oates for The
Register.
This story has been reproduced with permission.
Yahoo! has always said its Chinese subsidiary was only obeying
local laws.
Tom Lantos, chairman of the committee, said: "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. 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."
Yahoo! handed over information about Shi Tao, a Chinese
journalist. He was sentenced to 10 years' imprisonment for posting
on a website called Democracy Forum.
But the company always said it did not know what he was being
investigated for. Documents apparently sent to Yahoo! make clear
this was untrue.
Documents from Beijing State Security Bureau said they were
investigating "illegal provision of state secrets to foreign
entities" – commonly used to capture political dissidents.
The request asked Yahoo! for email details, log in times, IP
addresses, and email content from February 2004 until 22 April 2004
when the letter was sent.
Shi is appealing his sentence in China and is also seeking
damages against Yahoo! in the US courts.
The committee's statement is here.
Chinese human rights group Dui Hua found the documents. It has
more information
here, or a scan of the documents is here.
© The Register
2007
