Perhaps you've heard, but if you haven't, check this out: Just last week, the House International Relations subcommittee hauled a number of executives from blue chip internet firms like Yahoo and Google to account for what has become an increasingly appealing corporate policy abroad: China gives these companies access to a market that is growing considerably every day, and in turn these tech giants help China keep "undesirable" content out of the hands of Chinese citizens. And it goes farther than that: at least one Chinese citizen has been imprisoned for activity on the Net that would be protected by the First Amendment if it happened here in the States.
If this sounds like a Faustian bargain to you, you're not alone. Chris Smith, Republican of New Jersey, called this arrangement a "sickening collaboration." Tom Lantos, a California Democrat who has been involved with the Congressional Human Rights Caucus, remarked that he could not understand how these corporate executives could justify their complicity in helping the Chinese government monitor and control its citizenry.
At last week's hearings, a number of the top dogs from Yahoo and Google defended their actions by appealing to the long term benefits of doing business with China. Over time, they intimated, the government would have to come around; ultimately, the rich web of democratic values that inform our lives would come to inform theirs . . . though no one really explained in detail how that little magic trick might come off.
If you take a look at some of the news coverage of this critically important story, you'll find that Yahoo and Google insist that they're in a no-win situation: China's MFN status gives them a powerful bargaining chip, so powerful that these companies must play on China's terms if they want access to Chinese consumers. They may indeed be in a tough spot. Nevertheless, democratic norms and values are only worth what we would be willing to lose to keep them.