U.S. Corporations Vs U.S. Values

Unless U.S. values are exclusively monetary, regardless of the human rights consequences, the lead witness, Ethan Guttman, at today’s China human relations hearing of the House International Relations Subcommittee for Africa, Global Human Rights and International Operations told a sad truth:

I would guess that few people in this room actually desire intrusive government intervention and oversight of U.S. companies. I certainly don’t. I’m a former consultant to American corporations operating in China and a former vice-chair of the Government Relations Committee for the American Chamber of Commerce Beijing. I’m also a former believer in the concept that we would change China, not that China would change us.

But I now believe that the Internet Freedom Act may not be comprehensive enough, particularly in explicitly sanctioning Internet surveillance technologies….It is the history of a collision course, not so much between Washington and American Internet companies, but between American corporate decisions and American values….

Regarding Yahoo, Microsoft and Google, as I said, I consider the Online Freedom Act to be a tragedy. We did not have to reach this point.

Back in the winter of 2000, Microsoft fought the Chinese state and won…Microsoft built a coalition of the American Chamber of commerce, the US-China Business Council, the Japanese Chamber, and European entities….Microsoft let it be known that if the Chinese government did not back down it would pull out of China….

…American internet companies could form a new industry coalition, collectively ready to walk away…

…the only other option is the Online Freedom Act: routers based outside of China, regular audits, litigation in China and at home….

Yet the question that Microsoft, Google and Yahoo should be focusing on is this: Will the Chinese Communist Party still be in power in ten years from now? How about twenty years? And who is my primary customer base, the Chinese Communist Party or the Chinese people?…