A Senate subcommittee on Tuesday is expected to question a Cisco Systems Inc. executive about an internal 2002 document that includes a reference to censoring "hostiles" in describing the Chinese government's technology position and goals.
Representatives from Cisco, Google Inc. and Yahoo Inc. are expected to testify before the Senate Judiciary's human rights subcommittee, which is examining how U.S. Internet companies do business with certain governments, like China, Iran and Tunisia, that censor and suppress the free speech of their citizens. The committee is chaired by Sen. Richard Durbin, D-Ill.
Cisco spokesman Terry Alberstein confirmed that the 90-page PowerPoint presentation _ which was obtained by The Associated Press _ will likely be probed by lawmakers, but he denied that the San Jose, Calif.-based company is involved in any censorship with the Chinese government.
A Durbin spokesman declined to comment on the document or Cisco's role in the issue.
Companies like Cisco, Yahoo and Google have been trying to take advantage of the Internet's growing popularity in emerging markets like China. When Cisco began doing business with the Chinese government in 1994, there were fewer than 100,000 Internet users in the country, Alberstein said. Now there are more than 220 million.
But the U.S. companies increasingly face harsh criticism at home for helping certain governments that control information on the Internet or seek personally identifiable data to track down dissidents or political opponents.
For instance, Internet company Yahoo helped the Chinese government turn over personally identifiable information that led to the arrests and imprisonment of two Chinese journalists a few years ago. Since then, it has actively campaigned the U.S. government to help release jailed Chinese dissidents and it also established a human rights fund to provide humanitarian and legal aid to dissidents.
Google has also been trying to fight Web censorship worldwide, although human rights activists harshly criticized the Mountain View, Calif.-based company in 2006 for agreeing to censor its Web site in China. The company said the Chinese government made it a condition of allowing Chinese users access to Google Web pages.
Cisco, the world's largest networking equipment maker, provides gear that routes traffic across networks and also has technology that can block certain Web sites. Schools can use the devices to block pornographic sites from school computers, for example. But experts say the technology can also be used by governments to monitor communications and squelch free speech.
Alberstein, Cisco's senior director of corporate communications, said the PowerPoint document was put together by a company engineer to help educate other employees about the status and makeup of Chinese law enforcement agencies and other security branches.
One slide in the presentation referred to three goals: to stop network-related crimes, guarantee the security and services of a public network, and "combat 'Falun Gong' evil religion and other hostiles." Falun Gong is a banned spiritual movement that the Chinese government regards as a dangerous cult.
Alberstein said the statements are directly attributable to a Chinese government official named Runsen Li, but he added it's "very regrettable" the engineer quoted him.
"However, we do stress that those statements were included in the presentation to reflect the Chinese government's position," Alberstein said. "They do not represent Cisco's views, principles or its sales and marketing strategy or approach. They were merely inserted in that presentation to capture the goals of the Chinese government in that specific project, which was one of many discussed in that 2002 presentation."
Marc Rotenberg, executive director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center, said his group has previously raised concerns with Cisco about respecting the privacy of Internet communications, since it provides the technology that allows governments to potentially intercept such data. But he added the company has never been specifically cited in any of EPIC's reports.
"It's, of course, disturbing if U.S. companies are complicit in efforts by foreign governments to crack down on political opponents, and that's the key distinction," he said. "I think we need to respect free speech online and the privacy of communications and the political organizing potential of the Internet and at the same time recognize that governments do have to protect public safety and investigate criminal conduct."
Cisco says it sells the same equipment in China as it does elsewhere.
Mark Chandler, Cisco's senior vice president and general counsel, is expected to testify at the Senate hearing along with Google and Yahoo executives and several human rights representatives.
