Comments on: WSJ: Yahoo’s Lashing Highlights Risks Of China Market

By: 8Asians.com » Yahoo settles with dissidents

8Asians.com » Yahoo settles with dissidents — Thu, 15 Nov 2007 06:48:42 +0000

[...] I had posted in “WSJ: Yahoo’s Lashing Highlights Risks Of China Market,” Yahoo! got quite an earful by Congress last week. In today’s San Jose Mercury News, [...]

By: BizThoughts - The Cost of Doing Business with a World Power - Business and Entrepreneurial Thoughts from Mike Lee

Sun, 11 Nov 2007 18:30:29 +0000

[...] past Wednesday, Yahoo! co-founder Jerry Yang and Callahan testified in a hearing called by Representative Tom Lantos, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee. The purpose [...]

By: courageous kiwi

courageous kiwi — Thu, 08 Nov 2007 18:49:51 +0000

The big boss here is not Yang, or Brin, or the U.S. government: it’s the stock price, which is heavily determined by quarterly results. I used to work in sales, which is heavily governed by the same practices, and we used to have a saying: “It’s easier to apologize later than ask permission now.” As far as I am concerned, none of these apologies are sincere until Yang successfully secures Shi Tao’s freedom, Google unblocks sites from their cache, or either company stops doing business in China. You’re right though – who can blame either of them?

The Prisoner’s Dilemma analogy is an angle I’ve never considered, and is strangely appropriate, as well as a clever use of language on your part. Good show.

By: Phil

Phil — Thu, 08 Nov 2007 09:04:47 +0000

The thing that confuses me is that the information requested by China of Yahoo! China within the jurisdiction of the Chinese authorities was actually held by Yahoo! Hong Kong which while literally being in the PRC is nevertheless a separate legal jurisdiction. I am wondering what legal obligation there was at all to release this data from one legal jurisdiction to another…

By: Paul M

Paul M — Wed, 07 Nov 2007 14:39:39 +0000

Interesting blog, and good post…

By: Ben

Ben — Wed, 07 Nov 2007 14:32:06 +0000

I think the bottom line is, well, the bottom line. Yahoo!’s (and Google’s, and Microsoft’s, et al) calculation is that the financial upside of getting into China early and broadly vastly outweigh any ethical/moral downside (aiding and abetting the censoring of sites, or turning over political dissidents to the Chinese’ tender mercies, and the negative PR these events generate).

Perhaps these business leaders (along with the rest of us) hope that their presence in China will gradually accelerate China’s conversion to a western-style capitalist system, which in turn might bring with it western-style tolerance for dissent, and a newfound appreciation for human rights. But I think we’ll all be old men by then.