Yahoo Without A Cause

The latest company in issues related to human rights in China is none other than Yahoo. Reuters reports:

...The latest storm over Western Internet companies in China comes just weeks after Web search giant Google Inc. came under fire for saying it would block politically sensitive terms on its new China site, bowing to conditions set by Beijing.

Writer and veteran activist Liu Xiaobo said Yahoo had cooperated with Chinese police in a case that led to the 2003 arrest of Li Zhi, who was charged with subverting state power and sentenced to eight years in prison after trying to join the dissident China Democracy Party.

Yahoo gave public security agents details of Li's registration as a Yahoo user, Liu said in an article posted on U.S.-based Chinese-language news portal Boxun, citing a defence statement from Li's lawyers.

A spokeswoman for Yahoo said the company was looking into the matter.

"As in most jurisdictions, governments are not required to inform service providers why they are seeking certain information and typically do not do so," spokeswoman Mary Osako said...

It's easy to be critical of Yahoo on this one. Certainly, providing information to a government agency is how one does business in that country. And while the United States seems to be wrapped pretty tight itself, Yahoo does know that free speech is not something well received by the Chinese government. So, some say that they shouldn't do business there.

I'm of two minds.

Yes, supporting a government and supplying information for the persecution of those that would report in the manner of free speech is bad. But on the flip side, without internet sites like Yahoo, what would people from China see when they got on the internet? The same propaganda that they are trying to peer behind? And, is it the majority that are using the internet in China?

So I did some digging.

Who Has The Freedom of Speech Problem In China?

Looking at China's statistics for internet usage shows a demonstrated increase in the last 5 years - from 22,500,000 to 103,000,000 - which is an increase of 6.2% in internet penetration for the population. But as of 2005, 7.9 % of the population of China was online.

In other words - 92.1% of the population of China aren't online. Or, in other words, 1,187,781,288 people out of 1,289,664,808 aren't online in China.

That's a lot of people not visiting Yahoo.com.

This Google Answer on a question of China internet usage versus the rest of the world is also interesting:

...There are 3.16 million Internet users in Beijing
There are 1.82 million Internet users in Shanghai
There are 4.3 million Internet users in New York
There are 3.6 million Internet users in Los Angeles
There are 2.2 million Internet users in San Francisco

There is a 22.89% Internet access penetration in Beijing *2*
There is a 12.37% Internet access penetration in Shanghai *3*
There is a 53.75% Internet access penetration in New York *4*
There is a 37.82% Internet access penetration in Los Angeles *5*
There is a 61% Internet access penetration in San Francisco

Those are the statistical comparisons for China, United States and some major
cities. If this is not to the extent you sought, please request an Answer
clarification and request additional information or open an additional question.

Internet access penetration determination required a population statistic. This
is where those population statistics were taken from:

*1* This number is based off a population statistic from the CIA World Factbook
http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/ch.html

*2* This number is based off a population statistic from a CNN.com article
quoting key statistics for Beijing (2000)
http://www.cnn.com/2001/WORLD/asiapcf/east/07/12/beijing.profile.post/

*3* This number is based off a population statistic from a GWBN news clip about
broadband rollout
http://216.239.35.100/search?
q=cache:U6jfPi8NANoC:www.gwbnet.com/CaseStudies/+shanghai+population+july+2000&h
l=en

*4* This number is based off a population statistic from the City of New York's
Department of City Planning (April 2000)
http://216.239.35.100/search?
q=cache:TAv6zBlVpfcC:www.nyc.gov/html/dcp/home.html+%22new+york%
22+population+april+2000&hl=en

*5* This number is based off a population statistic from Regents of the
University of California webpage (2000)
http://countingcalifornia.cdlib.org/counties/losangeles.html
...

So while we're talking about some people exercising their online freedom of speech, the truth is that the majority of people in China don't even have an option to do so. That's the real atrocity.

Those Online

I expect that people on China who are online - a distinct minority - probably want access to sites like Yahoo.com. Why? Simple. Business. And China, not known for liking too much Western information inside to affect the minds of their citizens.

But those online aren't affecting the majority of people in China by making their voices heard online. There's no room for insurrection there when less than 10% of the country can read what someone writes, anyway. So why would China prosecute someone? The logical conclusion is that they don't want the West to read what people inside of China have to say if... if what? If it makes the Chinese government looks bad to foreigners and investors, probably. At least there isn't a news story about the Chinese government editing the Wikipedia to make themselves look good.

Yahoo serves a purpose for China; the Chinese Government and the Chinese people. The Chinese Government gets a pretty standard payback from sites like Yahoo in getting business and other information to it's citizens, despite the blocks it puts in place (and imagine how much money it costs to censor all that stuff). But with a demonstrated amount of internet use - a factor of 5 in the last 5 years - the citizens are gaining more and more from sites like Yahoo.

What's really funny here is that China just can't block all the ports. It's impossible. But directly writing about things (or trying to read things) scares the heck out of some people within the Chinese government. Changes in other parts of the world indirectly related to China will get people asking questions out loud - and while online is the focus of the online community, it's the street corner and house that are the most troublesome. That's where change occurs. But for that to happen, information needs to get into China.

And that means that we have to support Yahoo and other companies for the long stretch, despite the short term idiocies. Wittingly or unwittingly, they are helpful for the Chinese. I wouldn't have Yahoo leave China, or vice versa.

In the middle is where the stuff happens that sucks. And that's where Yahoo and companies like it are. Steve Miller Band, anyone?

...Communism to the left of me!
Democracy to the right!
Here I am
Stuck in the middle with you...

Without sites like Yahoo.com around... do you really think we'd know anything about what's going on in China besides what's snuck through the underground?