Yahoo’s name has again turned up in a case in which a Chinese cyber dissident has been jailed.
Wang Xiaoning was sentenced to 10 years in prison after distributing material by email and through Yahoo! Groups he’d established anonymously in mainland China and Hong Kong.
He, “repeatedly suffered physical abuse in detention between September 2002 and February 2004,” says Human Rights in China (HRIC).

Wang was also warned that if he appealed, he’d be denied any opportunity for parole, reduction of sentence for good behavior or other privileges and since 2004, has been subjected to the prison’s second most severe form of solitary confinement, says the organization.
Included in evidence presented against Wang was information provided by Yahoo! Holdings (Hong Kong) Ltd, HRIC goes on.
The judgement from a Chinese court states Wang’s’aaabbbccc’ Yahoo! Group was set up using the mainland China-based email address bxoguh@yahoo.com.cn. Yahoo! Holdings (Hong Kong) Ltd, also confirming the email address ahgq@yahoo.com.cn, through which Wang sent messages to the Group, was a mainland China-based account.
But it doesn’t say if Yahoo’s Hong Kongcompany, now operated by mainland-based Alibaba.com, “provided specific information regarding Wang’s identity,” says HRIC.
“The judgment also notes that in 2001, administrators of Wang’s mainland China-based Yahoo! Group noticed the political content of Wang’s writings and did not allow him to continue distribution through the Group. He then began distributing his journal by email to individual email addresses.”
Wang Xiaoning, 54, was detained on September 1, 2002 on suspicion of “incitement to subvert state power” and formally arrested on September 30, 2002, eventually going for trial at the Beijing Municipal First Intermediary People’s Court on July 25, 2003, the human rights organization continues.
On September 12, 2003, Wang was sentenced to 10 years in prison and two years’ subsequent deprivation of political rights on the charge of incitement to subvert state power.
“The allegations against Wang related to electronic journals he published from 2000 to 2002 and distributed by email and through Yahoo! Groups that Wang established anonymously in mainland China and Hong Kong,” says the post.
“The journals, called Democratic Reform Free Forum and Current Political Commentary, included articles written by Wang under his real name and pen names, and also articles written by others, advocating democratic reform and a multi-party system. Wang also posted articles on a number of Web sites in China and overseas.”
Yahoo was recently said to have provided evidence which ultimately allowed China’s cyber police to jail Jiang Lijun for four years. A Chinese court judgement showed Yahoo helped Chinese police to identify him, said Reporters Without Borders.
The other two jailed dissidents are Shi Tao and Li Zhi.
Like Google, Microsoft, Cisco and others, Yahoo claims it’s helping to improve communications with the totalitarian regime by cooperating with it.

Yahoo co-founder Jerry Yang recently said the company has to, “to think of a way in which the Internet phenomenon can continue to grow and reach more users and at the same time comply with local laws”.