Wang Xiaoning

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This is a Chinese name; the family name is Wang.

Wang Xiaoning (Chinese: 王小宁; Pinyin: Wáng Xiǎoníng) is a Chinese dissident from Shenyang who was arrested by authorities of the People's Republic of China for publishing controversial material online.

In 2000 and 2001, Wang, who was an engineer by profession, posted electronic journals in a Yahoo! group calling for democratic reform and an end to single-party rule. He was arrested in September 2002 after Yahoo! assisted Chinese authorities by providing information. In September 2003, Wang was convicted of charges of "incitement to subvert state power" and sentenced to ten years in prison.^[1]

1 Lawsuit against Yahoo!
2 Yahoos' defense
3 Business versus information
4 Other cases
5 See also
6 References
7 External links
- 7.1 Alien Tort Claims Act

[edit] Lawsuit against Yahoo!

On April 18, 2007, Xiaoning's wife Yu Ling sued Yahoo! under human rights laws in federal court in San Francisco, California, United States.^[2] Wang Xiaoning is named as a plaintiff in the Yahoo suit, which was filed with help from the World Organization for Human Rights USA. "Yahoo is guilty of 'an act of corporate irresponsibility,' said Morton Sklar, executive director of the group. 'Yahoo had reason to know that if they provided China with identification information that those individuals would be arrested."^[3]

Yahoo's decision to assist China's authoritarian government came as part of a policy of reconciling its services with the Chinese government's policies. This came after China blocked Yahoo services for a time as reported in The Washington Post and many media sources:

The suit says that in 2001, Wang was using a Yahoo e-mail account to post anonymous writings to an Internet mailing list. The suit alleges that Yahoo, under pressure from the Chinese government, blocked that account. Wang set up a new account via Yahoo and began sending material again; the suit alleges that Yahoo gave the government information that allowed it to identify and arrest Wang in September 2002. The suit says prosecutors in the Chinese courts cited Yahoo's cooperation.^[3]

Human rights organizations groups are basing their case on a 217-year-old U.S. law to punish corporations for human rights violations abroad, an effort the Bush administration has opposed:

In recent years, activists working with overseas plaintiffs have sued roughly two dozen businesses under the Alien Tort Claims Act, which the activists say grants jurisdiction to American courts over acts abroad that violate international norms. Written by the Founding Fathers in 1789 for a different purpose, the law was rarely invoked until the 1980s.^[3]

[edit] Yahoos' defense

As reported in the media:

Jim Cullinan, a spokesman for Yahoo, of Sunnyvale, Calif., said he could not comment on the suit or the specifics of Wang's case because he had not seen the papers Wednesday afternoon. But he said Yahoo condemns the suppression of speech. Companies that do business in other countries have to follow the laws of that country or their employees could be subject to penalties, he said. In addition, governments are not required to tell a company why they want information. "No company would know if it is for a legitimate criminal investigation, or if it's a matter of public safety, or it's being used to prosecute political dissidents," Cullinan said.^[3]

[edit] Business versus information

One of the core issues is that at the height of the Information Age with information societies utilizing information technology, when a company such as Yahoo is in the business of providing services that relate primarily to information, via the Information superhighway's Internet, the nature of that business is also interconnected with other values such as freedom of speech and human rights that cannot be ignored. This is made all the more acute when a Western-based company, such as Yahoo with its headquarters in the United States, seeks to do business in a totalitarian state such as the People's Republic of China which does not allow its citizens the same freedoms enjoyed by citizens of Western countries and cultures.

A second core issue is whether individuals can use the Internet to break the laws of their country, under the guise of freedom of speech, or under the assumed "anonymity" that the Internet provides them.

[edit] Other cases

Main articles: Jiang Lijun , Li Zhi (dissident) , and Shi Tao

On September 7, 2005 another dissident, Shi Tao, was arrested due to Yahoo! supplied information. Yahoo! stated it was simply complying with Chinese law. Other related cases are those of Jiang Lijun and Li Zhi.