'squeals' on Chinese dissident

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'squeals' on Chinese dissident

Associated Press

Posted Thursday , April 20, 2006 at 09:41

 

Beijing: Inc. turned over one of its users' draft e-mails to Chinese

authorities,

who used the information to jail the account holder on subversion charges, a

rights

group

said on Thursday.

 

It was the third time the U.S.-based Internet company has been accused of

helping

to put a

Chinese user in prison.

 

Jiang Lijun, 39, was given a four-year sentence in November 2003 for subversive

activities

aimed at overthrowing the ruling Communist Party.

 

's Hong Kong unit gave authorities a draft e-mail that had been saved on

Jiang's

account, the Paris-based group Reporters Without Borders, said Wednesday night,

providing

a copy of the verdict by the Beijing No. 2 People's Court.

 

Telephones at 's Hong Kong office and at Alibaba.com, which runs 's

mainland

China operations, rang unanswered.

 

The draft e-mail, titled Declaration, was similar to manuscripts called Freedom

and

Democracy Party Program and Declaration of Establishment, recovered from a

computer

and a

floppy disk owned by two other Internet activists, the verdict said.

 

The information proved that Jiang and the other activists were planning to " make

preparations for organizing a party and to use violence to overthrow the

Communist

Party, "

the verdict said.

 

Jiang was also one of five activists who signed an open letter that called for

political

reform and was posted on the Internet ahead of the Communist Party congress, a

major

event, in November 2002.

 

" Little by little we are piecing together the evidence for what we have long

suspected,

that is implicated in the arrest of most of the people we have been

defending, "

Reporters Without Borders said in a statement.

 

China encourages Internet use for business and education but tightly controls

Web

content,

censoring anything it considers critical of or a threat to the Communist Party.

 

Blogs are often shut down, and users who post articles promoting Western-style

democracy

and freedom are regularly detained and jailed under vaguely worded subversion

charges.

 

Rights groups have also criticized Sunnyvale, California-based for

providing

information in the cases of Li Zhi and Shi Tao.

 

Li was sentenced to prison for subversion after posting online criticisms of

official

corruption.

 

Shi, a reporter, was sentenced to prison after sending abroad an e-mail with

notes

about a

government memo on media restrictions.

 

Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang said in February that China has a right to

police

the

Internet and " guide its development in a healthy and orderly fashion. "

 

Internet service providers Google Inc. and Microsoft Corp. also have been

accused

of

enforcing Chinese censorship guidelines.

 

Google started a Chinese version of its popular search engine that omits links

to

content

the government deems unacceptable.

 

Microsoft shut down, at Beijing's request, a popular Chinese blog that touches

on

sensitive topics such as press freedom.

 

US lawmakers have criticized the companies of helping China crush dissent in

return

for

access to its rapidly expanding Internet market.

 

China has the world's second-largest Internet population, behind the United

States,

with

more than 100 million people online.

 

Reporters Without Borders' report came as Chinese President Hu Jintao was

visiting

the

United States. His first stop was Seattle, where he dined with Microsoft

Chairman

Bill Gates.

 

 

You can bomb the world to pieces

You can't bomb it into peace