Yahoo China ‘cyber dissidents’ fund
p2pnet news | Freedom:- With behind-closed-doors negotiations still being conducted to decide who’ll be the new Yahoo owner, the company has launched a cynical (even for it) PR exercise after its cooperation with Chinese police landed cyber dissidents Shi Tao and Wang Xiaoning in jail for 10 years.
It’s set up a fund, “aiding people jailed there for human rights views posted on the Internet, its overseer said,” according to Agence France-Presse.
But, “Harry Wu, a widely-known Chinese dissident who spent 19 years in labor camps for voicing his opinions, declined to say how much money is in the Yahoo Human Rights Fund he is administering with the help of a board of directors.”
Yahoo boss Jerry Yang (right) recently asked US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice to help out in, “addressing the related challenges confronting U.S. companies like Yahoo that invest in global markets”.
Meanwhile, “We want to help the Chinese live better,” Wu told AFP. “I’m not sure how much of an impact we will have, but we will try.”
The fund will pay for legal aid and family support for dissidents jailed for human rights views expressed on the Internet, “especially using Yahoo services,” according to Wu, says the story, adding:
“Money from the fund will also pay to educate people inside and outside China about human rights conditions in that country, Wu said.
“We really focus on human rights violations inside China,” said Wu, who now lives in the United States and runs Laogai Research Foundation, named after a Chinese word meaning re-education through labor.
“This includes organ transplants, public execution, Laogai camps, religious freedom, export products and dissidents fighting for their rights.”
jail for 10 years – Help Shi Tao, Wang Xiaoning, Yahoo asks US, February 25, 2008
Agence France-Presse – Yahoo fund aids ‘cyber dissidents’ in China , April 2, 2008
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April 3rd, 2008 at 3:39 pm
So they’ll help send dissidents to prison, then help pay their legal bills?
Why does Yahoo have to obey Chinese law anyway? The Internet is a global network, why do they even need to have a single employee in China? Run the servers in the US where they only have to obey US laws.