Smart business move OR assisting the oppressor?

Beijing

Microsoft silences dissident

At the request of the Chinese government, Microsoft has shut down the Web site of a prominent Chinese dissident. Zhao Jing, who blogs under the name Michael An Ti, had criticized the government’s firing of pro-democracy newspaper editors. Microsoft said that under its agreement with China allowing the company to operate there, it had no choice but to honor the demand. But human-rights activists say it’s troubling that Microsoft and other companies, including Yahoo! and Sun Microsystems, are complicit in the censorship of democratic activists. The U.S. Congress is holding hearings on the issue next month. Zhao, meanwhile, has found another host for his blog—but it’s not accessible in China. “It is so hard to be a free Chinese person,” he wrote. “Damn Great Wall, damn Microsoft.”

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