Yahoo! yesterday filed a motion to dismiss in the lawsuit brought against the Internet giant on behalf of a man imprisoned in China due to Yahoo!’s cooperation with the Chinese government. Wang Xiaoning is serving a ten-year prison sentence for writing pro-democracy articles because Yahoo! told Chinese authorities that Wang was the author of the articles.
His wife Yu Ling filed suit in San Franciso federal court saying that Yahoo! violated the Alien Tort Claims Act and the Torture Victims Protection Act by cooperating with Chinese law enforcement. As it has many times in the past, Yahoo! argued in its motion that the lawsuit is without merit because the company was merely following Chinese law.
But Yahoo has no control over the sovereign government of the People’s Republic of China (“PRC”), the laws it passes, and the manner in which it enforces its laws. Neither Yahoo Inc. or YHKL therefore, can be held liable for the independent acts of the PRC just because a former Yahoo subsidiary in China obeyed a lawful government request for the collection of evidence relevant to a pending investigation.”
Unfortunately, Yahoo! might prevail in its motion because it was merely following Chinese law. But whatever legal victories Yahoo! obtains, the company’s rote cant that it is merely following the laws of the countries where it does business is wearing thin and would be utterly appalling (as opposed to just appalling) if, for example, the year were 1943 and the country were Germany. On the moral victory front, Yahoo! is therefore already a loser regardless of the legal outcome of this case.
Maybe that’s why Yahoo!’s Jerry Yang has made tentative steps to soften the criticism by calling for the release of China’s political prisoners.
Cynthia Brumfield at 9:51 AM|Comments(0)
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