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Red Herring reports that the Congressional Human Rights Caucus interest group had set up a briefing on how to deal with human rights and Internet issues in China and invited Microsoft, Google, Yahoo! and Cisco among others.

However, all four said they were unable to attend despite the poor image this sends out at a time

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when these companies claim to be thinking long and hard about how to deal with these very issues as they march into China.

The caucus does not have the power to force the companies to attend. But a meeting scheduled for 15 February under the auspices of a House subcommittee hearing on Global Human Rights could land the tech giants with a subpoena should they try and take a rain check that day as well.

The US authorities are starting to feel uncomfortable over China dealings. The US - China Economic and Security Review Commission's 2005 Annual Report to Congress noted that 'The U.S. government has articulated a desire for freedom of information in China and worldwide, and implemented a program to obstruct Chinese government filtration of Internet content. At the same time, US companies have provided hardware for China's system of control, and made operating decisions that conform to the preference of China's government for censorship on the Internet.'