late westerly media coverage of a event involve Li Zhi , a incarcerate Chinese net user , exaggerated the role of a Yahoo Inc. subsidiary in the affair , according to a Hong Kong blogger and metier researcher .
Li is presently in prison function an eight - year prison term on charges that largely stem from his involvement with the China Democratic Party , a political radical criminalise in China . A 2004 collection papers released by Li ’s lawyers discover that Yahoo Holdings ( Hong Kong ) Ltd. in 2003 provided Chinese police with information that tied Li to a Yahoo tocopherol - mail account as well as messages from that news report .
Roland Soong , a extremely regarded translator and medium investigator who is the writer of the EastSouthWestNorth blog , did not argufy story that Yahoo provided Formosan police force with evidence used to build up a case against Li . However , he say Yahoo ’s role in the case has been pontifical , and wonder why the compositor’s case has attracted so much attention now , nearly two years after the statement was written by Li ’s lawyers .
“ With all due regard , I do n’t think whoever is crowd this gives a tinker’s damn about Li Zhi , the poor guy rope , ” Soong said .
Soong also knock Western media coverage of Li ’s case , saying too much accent was station on Yahoo ’s role in the affair . Some Western media report card implied that Li was jailed on the basis of grounds provided by Yahoo , while the company is mention in just one paragraph of the charm text file , he said . The remainder of the papers is dedicated to a discussion of grounds gathered from other origin .
News of Yahoo ’s involvement in Li ’s case come at a tender clip for U.S. company . In late months , they have derive under increasing examination in the U.S. for their actions in China .
Yahoo has antecedently been criticized for provide grounds used to imprison a Chinese journalist for 10 years on charges of leaking country secrets . Microsoft Corp. has necessitate heat energy for censoring the web log of another Formosan diarist and Google Inc. has taken flack for offering a ban version of its search locomotive in China .
On Wednesday , the U.S. House of Representative ’s Subcommittee on Global Human Rights , Africa and International Operations will obtain hearing to investigate how U.S. Internet ship’s company operate in China . Representatives from Microsoft , Yahoo , Google , Cisco Systems Inc. , and Reporters Without Borders , are expected to see .