Microsoft Shuts Down Chinese Blog (Helps Chicoms squelch free speech)

Breitbart.com ^ | 1/6/06 | JOE McDONALD/AP

[wagglebee]

Microsoft Corp. has shut down the Internet journal of a Chinese blogger that discussed politically sensitive issues including a recent strike at a Beijing newspaper.

The action came amid criticism by free-speech activists of foreign technology companies that help the communist government enforce censorship or silence dissent in order to be allowed into China's market.

Microsoft's China-based Web log-hosting service shut down the blog at the Chinese government's request, said Brooke Richardson, group product manager with Microsoft's MSN online division at the company headquarters in Redmond, Washington.

Though Beijing has supported Internet use for education and business, it fiercely polices content. Filters block objectionable foreign Web sites and regulations ban subversive and pornographic content and require service providers to enforce censorship rules.

"When we operate in markets around the world we have to ensure that our service complies with global laws as well as local laws and norms," Richardson said.

Richardson said the blog was shut down on Dec. 30 or 31 but wouldn't give any other details about the reason.

But the blog, written under the pen name An Ti by Zhao Jing, who works for the Beijing bureau of The New York Times as a research assistant, touched on sensitive topics such as China's relations with Taiwan. Last week, he used the blog to crusade on behalf of a Beijing newspaper.

Reporters at the Beijing News, a daily known for its aggressive reporting, staged an informal one-day strike after their chief editor was removed from his post. The editor's removal and the strike attracted comments on Chinese online bulletin boards, which censors then erased.

Online bulletin boards and Web logs have given millions of Chinese an opportunity to express opinions in a public setting in a system where all media are government-controlled.

But service providers are required to monitor Web logs and bulletin boards, erase banned content and report offenders.

Foreign companies have adopted Chinese standards, saying they must obey local laws.

Microsoft's Web log service bars use of terms such as "democracy" and "human rights." On the China-based portal of search engine Google, a search for material the Dalai Lama, Taiwan and other sensitive topics returns a message saying "site cannot be found."

Last year, Web portal Yahoo! was the target of criticism when it was disclosed that the company provided information that was used to convict a Chinese reporter on charges of revealing state secrets.

Reporter Shi Tao was sentenced to 10 years in prison based on an e- mail that he had sent abroad with details of a memo read out at his newspaper about media controls.

In September, a Chinese journalist was sentenced to seven years in prison on subversion charges after writing articles that appeared on Web sites abroad that are blocked in China.

China also is in the midst of a crackdown on online smut. The police ministry said last month that it had shut down 598 Web sites with sexually explicit content and arrested 25 people.

David Wolf, a Beijing-based technology consultant, said that while Microsoft might be hurt abroad by controversy over its actions in China, Chinese Internet services routinely exercise similar censorship.

"They simply do it as a matter of course," said Wolf, managing director of Wolf Group Asia. "When you're looking around China, there is nothing that Microsoft and Yahoo have to do that is any different from what Chinese companies already are doing."

[phoenix0468]

You mean over John Kerry and Ted Kennedy?

What have those two done to furthur technology and capitalism in the world. Bill Gates is a stellar corporate citizen and and outstanding philanthropist. If you judge people by those attributes than Carnige was Gates role model of morality.

[phoenix0468]

No one is apologizing for any US corporation. There are no apologies necessary. Microsoft has done nothing wrong, they only followed the law that was imposed on them. The Chinese government is the entity responsible for shutting down the web site, not Microsoft. If you were able to understand this you would realize where the actual blame lies.

[phoenix0468]

Every time we have tried isolationism in the past it has resulted in war. I do not want to go to war with China. If it comes to that so be it, bit I don't want it. We opened relations with the Soviet Union in the early eighties and I believe that openness and furthering democratic philosophies and principles such as capitalism is what eventually let to the collapse of communism in the Soviet Union.

I agree that the Red Chinese are a despicable lot. Their record of human rights offenses and obvious disregard for cultural, religious, and personal freedoms makes them immoral. Regardless, I do not agree with isolationism and sanctions.

[phoenix0468]

Hindsight is 20/20. Although I agree with both of those actions in retrospect, I am not appraised of the situations of our leaders and their views at the time. We can speculate and make judgments on past decisions all day. Learning from past actions is what will propel us into a brighter more prosperous future that includes a free democratic China. This is a hope of mine because I feel that a China that is free will be more of an ally to us than a hindrance.

[untrained skeptic]

Then deny their people everything. If they get disgusted enough at what their government does they'll DO something about it.

I agree. It's the Chinese people that are going to have to change things there. There are only limited things that people outside that country can do.

What is it with some of you apologizing for American corporations selling out principles in place of profits?

Hmm, didn't realizing I was apologizing for anyone. Do you really think the Chinese people will be better off if the government shuts down the Chinese branch of MSN? Does losing an inexpensive way to communicate ideas, even if there are restrictions on that communication really help those people?

Their Internet services do have restriction that we do not consider acceptable here in the US. However they are still better off with those restrictions that the Chinese government tries to enforce than with losing that means of communication.

I bet you would have made a heck of a TEA IMPORTER in 1770's Boston.......

In the 1770s the British government made it so that the East India company didn't have to pay any taxes that other importers and merchants were paying.

It was those importers that were harmed most by the actions of the British government, and it was those businessmen that started the revolution in motion.

But I guess they were wrong to do so because they were just evil capitalists trying to earn a living.

So tell me how is Microsoft sacrificing principles for profits? The fight in Boston was mainly over unequal taxation. Should Microsoft refuse to pay our confiscatory taxes in this country where those that earn more through hard work shoulder the majority of the burden? Are they sacrificing principles in order to stay in business by paying those taxes?

How about a more pertinent question. How does it serve the interests of the Chinese people if Microsoft refuses to obey the Chinese government and gets shut down and all their customers lose their service or the government confiscates Microsoft's business and takes over? Doe the action you suggest they take have any reasonable chance of producing a desirable result?

[Prime Choice]

Microsoft just falls over itself to do the bidding of the Chinese Communists.

Can't wait to see Buzzy explain that one away.

Oh...he's SO curiously absent, isn't he?   *LOL*

[flyingx]

Most of the coverage of Microsoft’s decision to shut down a Chinese log site at the request of the Chinese government conveniently overlooks a key point: China is a communist country. The Chinese government owns and controls all facets of Chinese industry, commerce, public information and individual rights.

Bill Gates is a fine man. Through his foundation, he contributes millions of dollars to various causes he supports. He is also a business man. Microsoft does business in China because it represents a substantial revenue source. Microsoft pays a price to do business in China.

China simply demands that Microsoft enforce the rules of the regime or they will not be allowed to do business in China. China could impose regulatory and licensing fees, fines for violating local and national “norms”, and other forms of taxation, which Microsoft would merely include in the cost of their products. However, China enforces only one rule – adhere to the communist dictates or do not do business in China.

What is distressing about this whole affair is that we, the United States, have soldiers dying in Iraq to help Iraqis establish a democratic form of government with individual freedoms including freedom of speech while businesses such as Microsoft and Yahoo willingly assist the Chinese government in suppressing the very freedoms our soldiers are dying for in Iraq.

It appears that the almighty dollar trumps freedom – again.