Home > Tech/Science > Yahoo outed Chinese dissident knowing investigation was political, documents show

Yahoo outed Chinese dissident knowing investigation was political, documents show

By Ryan Singel

Following on yesterday’s post about a newly unearthed document that contradicts Yahoo’s statement to Congress about its involvement in China’s jailing of a dissident, the same human rights group has translated emails in another case, showing that in 2002 Yahoo turned over emails about a democratic political movement that led to political persecution by China.

Wang Xiaoning, whose poignant story Luke O’Brien told for Wired several months ago, is now serving a 10-year sentence for “subversion,” following an investigation that involved subpoenas to Yahoo’s China office.

Wang’s wife Yu Ling (pictured) is now attempting to sue Yahoo for turning over the emails. The new translations from the Dui Hua Foundation, a human rights group. show that Yahoo China was informed that the investigation was about “inciting subversion,” which should have been a clear tip-off to the company that the investigation involved political speech.

Additionally, since the government was asking for the contents of the emails, not just the subscriber information, the company should have been able to see that the investigation was political in nature after performing the search. The emails in question (PDF) were communications from the new, democracy-promoting political party Wang had formed called the Third Way.

On April 23, 2002, agents of the Beijing State Security Bureau approached Yahoo!’s Beijing office with a notice requesting information about a Yahoo! Groups account as well as registration and login information for two Yahoo! email addresses. In a subsequent request for information on August 14, 2002, police sought registration information, login information, and email messages for another Yahoo! email account, all of which appear to have been provided on that same day by Yahoo!’s Beijing office. Both of the police notices clearly state “suspected inciting subversion” as the cause of the investigation.

On September 1, 2002, Wang Xiaoning was taken into custody by police in Beijing on suspicion of “inciting subversion.” He was charged with using an online newsletter to attack the government and advocate multi-party elections, and he was alleged to have used his Yahoo! accounts to disseminate the political writings of his “Chinese Third Way Party” to hundreds of recipients. Sentenced to 10 years’ imprisonment by the Beijing Number One Intermediate People’s Court on September 12, 2003, Wang is due for release from Beijing Number Two Prison on August 31, 2012.

Yahoo spokesperson Jim Cullinan says:

Yahoo! China is run by Alibaba. This has been true since 2005, but we do own a 40% stake in Alibaba. You would have to ask Alibaba and Yahoo! China what their current policy is.

The Dui Hua Foundation’s full post on the new documents.

Via Rebecca MacKinnon. Photo: Jenna Wortham

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Published in Wired.com