Two top Yahoo officials on Tuesday defended their company's role in the jailing of a Chinese journalist but ran into withering criticism from US lawmakers who accused them of complicity with an oppressive communist regime.
"While technologically and financially you are giants, morally you are pygmies," House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Tom Lantos said angrily after hearing from the two Yahoo executives.
Lantos, a California Democrat, angrily urged Yahoo chief executive Jerry Yang (楊致遠) and general counsel Michael Callahan to apologize to journalist Shi Tao's (師濤) mother, who was sitting directly behind them.
Shi Tao was jailed for 10 years for engaging in pro-democracy efforts deemed subversive after Yahoo turned over information about his online activities requested by Chinese authorities.
Yang and Callahan turned around from the witness table and bowed from their seats to Shi's mother, Gao Qinsheng (
Yang contended that Yahoo "has been open and forthcoming with this committee at every step of this investigative process" -- a contention Lantos and other committee members rejected.
The committee is investigating statements Callahan made at a congressional hearing early last year.
Callahan said at the time that the Sunnyvale, California, Internet giant had no information about the nature of the Chinese government's investigation of Shi when the company turned over information about him.
Callahan has since admitted that Yahoo officials had received a subpoena-like document that made reference to suspected "illegal provision of state secrets" -- a common charge against political dissidents.
Last week Callahan issued a statement saying that he learned the details of the document months after his testimony in February last year, and that he regretted not alerting the committee to it once he knew about it.
He reiterated that regret on Tuesday.
"I cannot ask our local employees to resist lawful demands and put their own freedom at risk, even if, in my personal view, the local laws are overbroad," Callahan said.
Lantos rejected that argument.
"I do not believe that America's best and brightest companies should be playing integral roles in China's notorious and brutal political repression apparatus," he said.
Republican Congressman Chris Smith compared Yahoo's cooperation with the Chinese government to companies that cooperated with Nazi Germany during World War II.
Lawmakers demanded to know what Yahoo would do to help Shi's family and reacted with derision when neither Yang nor Callahan provided a concrete answer.
Callahan also could not say whether there were outstanding demands for information from the Chinese government to Yahoo, or whether Yahoo would react the same way today to a demand for information from the Chinese government as it did several years ago when the authorities wanted information about Shi.
In 2005 Yahoo bought a 40 percent stake in China's biggest online commerce company, Alibaba.com, which has taken over running Yahoo's China operations. Callahan said it was up to Alibaba officials how to respond to the Chinese government's demands.
Smith dismissed that explanation as "plausible deniability."
Callahan did say that in going into future markets such as Vietnam, Yahoo would aim to find a way to avoid turning over information to the government on online activities.
"I would hope to have a structure in place ... that we would be able to resist those demands or have that data not be accessible," he said.
Human rights and free-speech advocates have lambasted US companies including Google Inc and Microsoft Corp for helping the Chinese government stifle the flow of ideas in exchange for greater access to the country's rapidly growing Internet market. But the convictions of Shi and another Chinese journalist Yahoo provided information about have focused the most strident criticism on Yahoo.
RETHINK? The defense ministry and Navy Command Headquarters could take over the indigenous submarine project and change its production timeline, a source said Admiral Huang Shu-kuang’s (黃曙光) resignation as head of the Indigenous Submarine Program and as a member of the National Security Council could affect the production of submarines, a source said yesterday. Huang in a statement last night said he had decided to resign due to national security concerns while expressing the hope that it would put a stop to political wrangling that only undermines the advancement of the nation’s defense capabilities. Taiwan People’s Party Legislator Vivian Huang (黃珊珊) yesterday said that the admiral, her older brother, felt it was time for him to step down and that he had completed what he
Taiwan has experienced its most significant improvement in the QS World University Rankings by Subject, data provided on Sunday by international higher education analyst Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) showed. Compared with last year’s edition of the rankings, which measure academic excellence and influence, Taiwanese universities made great improvements in the H Index metric, which evaluates research productivity and its impact, with a notable 30 percent increase overall, QS said. Taiwanese universities also made notable progress in the Citations per Paper metric, which measures the impact of research, achieving a 13 percent increase. Taiwanese universities gained 10 percent in Academic Reputation, but declined 18 percent
CHINA REACTS: The patrol and reconnaissance plane ‘transited the Taiwan Strait in international airspace,’ the 7th Fleet said, while Taipei said it saw nothing unusual The US 7th Fleet yesterday said that a US Navy P-8A Poseidon flew through the Taiwan Strait, a day after US and Chinese defense heads held their first talks since November 2022 in an effort to reduce regional tensions. The patrol and reconnaissance plane “transited the Taiwan Strait in international airspace,” the 7th Fleet said in a news release. “By operating within the Taiwan Strait in accordance with international law, the United States upholds the navigational rights and freedoms of all nations.” In a separate statement, the Ministry of National Defense said that it monitored nearby waters and airspace as the aircraft
UNDER DISCUSSION: The combatant command would integrate fast attack boat and anti-ship missile groups to defend waters closest to the coastline, a source said The military could establish a new combatant command as early as 2026, which would be tasked with defending Taiwan’s territorial waters 24 nautical miles (44.4km) from the nation’s coastline, a source familiar with the matter said yesterday. The new command, which would fall under the Naval Command Headquarters, would be led by a vice admiral and integrate existing fast attack boat and anti-ship missile groups, along with the Naval Maritime Surveillance and Reconnaissance Command, said the source, who asked to remain anonymous. It could be launched by 2026, but details are being discussed and no final timetable has been announced, the source