Press Group Says Yahoo Aided China In Jailing Reporter

By JAMES T. AREDDY
Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
September 7, 2005; Page B2

SHANGHAI -- In handing down a 10-year prison sentence for a local journalist this year, a Chinese court relied partly on evidence provided by a Hong Kong subsidiary of Internet company Yahoo Inc., a press freedom group alleged.

Reporters Without Borders said in a statement that Shi Tao, a journalist in Hunan province for Contemporary Business News, was convicted in a case concerning "top secret level state secrets" in part because Yahoo Holdings (Hong Kong) Ltd. supplied information that helped police track him down.

A court in Changsha, Hunan, said Mr. Shi supplied information to foreign Web sites that his newspaper colleagues had been instructed not to commemorate the then-pending 15th anniversary of China's 1989 crackdown on pro-democracy activists.

A statement from the Paris-based press freedom group included an English translation of the April court decision. Among the evidence used in locating Mr. Shi, according to the document, was Internet "account information furnished by Yahoo Holdings (Hong Kong) Ltd."

The conviction of Mr. Shi was among a number of actions taken against the press since President Hu Jintao became Communist Party chief nearly three years ago. But it is the first believed to involve allegations that a foreign company provided evidence for the conviction. A Yahoo spokeswoman in Hong Kong said the company had no comment. A spokeswoman for the company's parent in Sunnyvale, Calif., didn't respond to requests for comment.

Yahoo and several other U.S. Internet companies have China-specific operations and operating rules, which they say are necessary to do business legally in the country. Human-rights groups say that helps Beijing censor information and keep a firm limit on freedom of speech.

Yahoo last month agreed to pay $1 billion and hand over its China operations to Alibaba.com Corp. in return for a 40% stake in the Chinese company.

Hong Kong, a special administrative region of China, has more liberal press rules than those in mainland China. Reporters Without Borders said it is common for Internet providers to supply police with user information in response to court orders.

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Google Service Offers
China Map Searches

By RIVA RICHMOND
DOW JONES NEWSWIRES
September 7, 2005

Google Inc. launched a local-search service in China on Sunday, marking the Web-search giant's latest move to expand its presence in the vast country's fast-growing online marketplace.

Google Local, which has up to now been available only in the U.S., U.K., Canada and Japan, allows Web users to use keyword searches to find businesses in particular cities -- for example, coffee shops in Shanghai -- and see their locations plotted on a map. Many Internet companies are pursuing local initiatives in efforts to tap into huge offline yellow-page advertising markets.

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The new service, Google Bendi, provides local information for more than 100 Chinese cities, a Google spokesman said. Maps are available for searches related to more than 70 of those cities through a partnership with Mapabc.com Ltd., a Beijing-based Web-based mapping service, he added.

The site, located at http://bendi.google.com, appears to be an effort by Google to stretch its lead in searches for shopping and business information.

An August survey of Internet users in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou by the state-owned China Internet Network Information Center, or CNNIC, ranked Google as the No. 2 search engine overall after Baidu.com Inc. But the nonprofit group's survey showed that Google is the preferred tool for finding Web pages and shopping, business and other information.

China has 103 million Internet users, according to CNNIC. The survey showed Baidu's overall lead is due mainly to Chinese students' very active hunt for music to download. Google, however, was preferred for finding Web pages and other information, and its users were older, better educated and had higher incomes.

CNNIC says that in Beijing Baidu has a 51.5% market share to Google's 32.9% share. In Shanghai, Baidu has 43.9% to Google's 38.2%, and in Guangzhou Baidu has 48% and Google has 28.7%. Search engines from Yahoo Inc., Sohu.com Inc., Netease.com Inc. all had market shares in the single digits, according to the group.