Euro Commissioner slams US tech companies' China links

By Steve Malone

Posted on 20 Dec 2005 at 10:48

A senior European Commissioner has condemned US high-tech companies for pandering to the Chinese authorities and restricting freedom of speech in order to be able to do business in the People's Republic.

Writing in her blog Margot Wallstroem, the Commissioner for Institutional Relations and Communication, says that some companies 'have flexible ethical standards depending on where they operate.'

Wallstroem says that she was 'disappointed' when she heard that Microsoft had complied with a Chinese government demand that it block blog entries that use words and phrases like 'democracy', 'freedom', 'human rights' and 'demonstration'. She then goes on to condemn Google for deleting publications from its index to which the Chinese authorities objected and Yahoo! for its well publicised case of handing over data to Chinese courts, which led to the arrest and conviction of a human rights activist.

In conclusion Wallstroem writes: 'Words like ethics and corporate social responsibility seem to be deleted from their corporate code of conducts.'

Earlier this year the OpenNet Initiative found that Chinese online censorship was the most sophisticated in the world due in no small part to the deployment of Western technology.

In her blog Ms Wallstroem is clearly writing in a personal capacity and is likely to be shrugged off by the companies named, although it is likely to tarnish the reputation of Google's motto to 'do no evil'. At the same time, many of the comments on her blog entry were quick to point out the EU's double standards in its dealings with China. They point out that the EU has enlisted China in the development of the Galileo satellite radio navigation system and that both Germany and France are keen to lift the EU arms embargo on China, which was imposed following the massacres in Tiananmen Square.