Rights Group Says Cisco Helps China Repression

[flashl]

The Global Internet Freedom Consortium showed a Senate subcommittee a PowerPoint presentation of Cisco working with China to control Internet information. Shiyu Zhou of the consortium said Cisco helps run China's Golden Shield Project, or Great Firewall. Chairman Dick Durbin said the industry is "intolerably slow" on self-regulation.

The last time Congress put a spotlight on an Internet company collaborating with China's policies of censorship and repression, it was on Yahoo and CEO Jerry Yang. Tuesday, it was Cisco's turn.

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Shiyu Zhou, deputy director of the Global Internet Freedom Consortium, testified that it had obtained the presentation titled Cisco Opportunities {in the Golden Shield Project}, which showed Cisco working closely with the government on an elaborate scheme to control what information is available on the Internet in China.

Smoking PowerPoint

"Cisco offers much more than just routers; it offers planning, construction, technical training, and operations maintenance for the Golden Shield," Zhou said. "Our research shows that the infrastructure Relevant Products/Services of China's Great Firewall coincides with the layouts in Cisco (China)'s PowerPoint document."

Zhou charged that "Cisco can no longer assure Congress that Cisco (China) has not been and is not now an accomplice and partner in China's Internet repression and, whether directly or indirectly, in its persecution of Falun Gong practitioners and other peaceful citizens in China."

Newsfactor