Police Document Evidence, Dui Hua Testimony on Yahoo!'s Role in Chinese Internet Cases
In July 2007, Dui Hua research uncovered Chinese police documents related to the role of Yahoo! in the Internet subversion cases of dissidents Shi Tao and Wang Xiaoning. Dui Hua translated the documents and posted them with summary and commentary on the foundation's web site in two separate postings. For the convenience of site visitors, the information released by Dui Hua in late July appears below in one combined posting.
On November 7, 2007, Dui Hua’s Manager of Research and Programs Joshua Rosenzweig gave remarks related to the Yahoo! cases at a briefing entitled “China and the Internet: A Virtual Road to Prison” before the Congressional Human Rights Caucus (CHRC) in Washington, DC. The full text of his remarks can be viewed here.
On November 7, 2007, Dui Hua’s Manager of Research and Programs Joshua Rosenzweig gave remarks related to the Yahoo! cases at a briefing entitled “China and the Internet: A Virtual Road to Prison” before the Congressional Human Rights Caucus (CHRC) in Washington, DC. The full text of his remarks can be viewed here.
In addition, selected news articles cover how Dui Hua's work contributed to public awareness of the role of Yahoo! in these cases.
Police Document Sheds Additional Light on Shi Tao Case (7/25/07)
New documentation of the Beijing State Security Bureau’s request for user account information from Internet company Yahoo! in the case of Chinese journalist Shi Tao raises new questions about how much the company knew at the time of the request about the nature of the police investigation.
The police document, a copy of which recently surfaced on the web site of the US-based Chinese-language web site Boxun.com, is essentially a standardized search warrant making clear that Chinese law enforcement agencies have the legal authority to collect evidence in criminal cases. (The Dui Hua Foundation has produced a full English translation of the document, which it has examined and believes to be authentic.)
Addressed to the Beijing representative office of Yahoo! Holdings (Hong Kong) Ltd., the April 2004 notice specifies that evidence is being sought in a case of suspected “illegally providing state secrets to foreign entities” (a state security crime under China’s criminal code) and requests the account registration, login times and corresponding IP addresses, and email content over a two-month period in early 2004 for a specific Yahoo! email account, huoyan1989@yahoo.com.cn. Court documents have already revealed that this account information was used as evidence in the trial against Shi.
In February 2006 testimony before two congressional subcommittees investigating the practices of American Internet companies in China, Yahoo! senior vice president and general counsel Michael Callahan stated: “When Yahoo! China in Beijing was required to provide information about the user, who we later learned was Shi Tao, we had no information about the nature of the investigation.” While condemning China’s punishment of free expression, Callahan noted that Yahoo! was authorized to comply with legally authorized law enforcement requests in the countries in which it operates.
“This new documentation suggests that Yahoo!’s Beijing office was at least aware of the general nature of the crime being investigated in the Shi Tao case,” says Joshua Rosenzweig, manager of research and publications for The Dui Hua Foundation, “even if it was unaware of the specific circumstances or the name of the individual involved. One does not have to be an expert in Chinese law to know that ‘state secrets’ charges have often been used to punish political dissent in China.”
“We must remember,” Rosenzweig adds, “that before Shi Tao there were three other Chinese dissidents about whom Chinese police obtained user information from Yahoo! in Beijing. If we assume that law enforcement agencies investigating these cases followed the same procedures to obtain that information, three other notices would have been provided specifying investigations into subversion or incitement—crimes of a more unambiguous political nature.”
Shi Tao, sentenced in 2005 by a court in Hunan Province to 10 years’ imprisonment for “illegally providing state secrets to foreign entities,” was jailed for sending an overseas web site details of a secret government memorandum warning Chinese media outlets against voicing opinions contrary to official policies during the months prior to the sensitive 15th anniversary of the 1989 pro-democracy demonstrations. Shi recently joined another jailed Chinese dissident, Wang Xiaoning, in seeking damages in US federal court against Yahoo! and its Hong Kong subsidiary.
More Evidence Emerges on Yahoo!’s Role in Chinese Internet Cases (7/30/07)The police document, a copy of which recently surfaced on the web site of the US-based Chinese-language web site Boxun.com, is essentially a standardized search warrant making clear that Chinese law enforcement agencies have the legal authority to collect evidence in criminal cases. (The Dui Hua Foundation has produced a full English translation of the document, which it has examined and believes to be authentic.)
Addressed to the Beijing representative office of Yahoo! Holdings (Hong Kong) Ltd., the April 2004 notice specifies that evidence is being sought in a case of suspected “illegally providing state secrets to foreign entities” (a state security crime under China’s criminal code) and requests the account registration, login times and corresponding IP addresses, and email content over a two-month period in early 2004 for a specific Yahoo! email account, huoyan1989@yahoo.com.cn. Court documents have already revealed that this account information was used as evidence in the trial against Shi.
In February 2006 testimony before two congressional subcommittees investigating the practices of American Internet companies in China, Yahoo! senior vice president and general counsel Michael Callahan stated: “When Yahoo! China in Beijing was required to provide information about the user, who we later learned was Shi Tao, we had no information about the nature of the investigation.” While condemning China’s punishment of free expression, Callahan noted that Yahoo! was authorized to comply with legally authorized law enforcement requests in the countries in which it operates.
“This new documentation suggests that Yahoo!’s Beijing office was at least aware of the general nature of the crime being investigated in the Shi Tao case,” says Joshua Rosenzweig, manager of research and publications for The Dui Hua Foundation, “even if it was unaware of the specific circumstances or the name of the individual involved. One does not have to be an expert in Chinese law to know that ‘state secrets’ charges have often been used to punish political dissent in China.”
“We must remember,” Rosenzweig adds, “that before Shi Tao there were three other Chinese dissidents about whom Chinese police obtained user information from Yahoo! in Beijing. If we assume that law enforcement agencies investigating these cases followed the same procedures to obtain that information, three other notices would have been provided specifying investigations into subversion or incitement—crimes of a more unambiguous political nature.”
Shi Tao, sentenced in 2005 by a court in Hunan Province to 10 years’ imprisonment for “illegally providing state secrets to foreign entities,” was jailed for sending an overseas web site details of a secret government memorandum warning Chinese media outlets against voicing opinions contrary to official policies during the months prior to the sensitive 15th anniversary of the 1989 pro-democracy demonstrations. Shi recently joined another jailed Chinese dissident, Wang Xiaoning, in seeking damages in US federal court against Yahoo! and its Hong Kong subsidiary.
Documents in another of four known cases involving Yahoo! and the imprisonment of Chinese dissidents show conclusively that information provided by the company’s Beijing office was being used as part of Chinese police investigations into political crimes.
In this case, emails from Wang Xiaoning supplied to police by Yahoo! were used as evidence that he disseminated writings opposed to the Chinese government and its policies. A Beijing court subsequently found Wang guilty of “inciting subversion” and sentenced him to 10 years’ imprisonment. (The documents, which The Dui Hua Foundation has examined and believes to be authentic, are appended along with English translations.)
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.
These documents follow Dui Hua’s July 25 report on a police document in the case of Shi Tao revealing that Yahoo!’s representative office in Beijing had information that investigators were pursuing a case involving a leak of state secrets. User account information provided to police in response to that document was later used to convict Shi on state secrets charges and sentence him to ten years’ imprisonment. Previously released court documents have also shown that Yahoo! user account information was provided by the company in the course of police investigations into the subversion cases of Jiang Lijun (sentenced to four years’ imprisonment in November 2003) and Li Zhi (sentenced to eight years’ imprisonment in December 2003).
Related links:
In this case, emails from Wang Xiaoning supplied to police by Yahoo! were used as evidence that he disseminated writings opposed to the Chinese government and its policies. A Beijing court subsequently found Wang guilty of “inciting subversion” and sentenced him to 10 years’ imprisonment. (The documents, which The Dui Hua Foundation has examined and believes to be authentic, are appended along with English translations.)
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.
These documents follow Dui Hua’s July 25 report on a police document in the case of Shi Tao revealing that Yahoo!’s representative office in Beijing had information that investigators were pursuing a case involving a leak of state secrets. User account information provided to police in response to that document was later used to convict Shi on state secrets charges and sentence him to ten years’ imprisonment. Previously released court documents have also shown that Yahoo! user account information was provided by the company in the course of police investigations into the subversion cases of Jiang Lijun (sentenced to four years’ imprisonment in November 2003) and Li Zhi (sentenced to eight years’ imprisonment in December 2003).
Related links:
posted by The Dui Hua Foundation at Wednesday, November 14, 2007
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