Does Cisco help the Chinese censor dissent?

By Michael Fraase

Wednesday, 21 May 2008 07:16PM CST

Section: Censorship

CensorshipAn internal Cisco Systems marketing presentation that offers assistance in “combating Falun Gong evil cult and other hostile elements,”—a direct quote attributed to Runsen Li, a Chinese IT officer—was obtained by congressional investigators and the Washington Post. Glenn Kessler reports that “[a]fter a slide referencing the crackdown on Falun Gong, the next slide proclaims: ‘Cisco Opportunity: High start-point planning, High standard construction, Technical training, Security and operation maintenance.”

Sarah Lai Stirland, writing on a Wired weblog, calls this “the first evidence that the networking giant has marketed its routers to China specifically as a tool of repression.”

Cisco, according to Kessler’s report, maintains that the six-year old document “was simply a restatement of the government’s objectives. It has nothing to do with Cisco’s objectivity and Cisco’s technologies. We are very much for freedom of expression.”

Right. There’s nothing happening here, move along.

That’s why a US Senate judiciary committee wanted to know if Cisco is helping the Chinese use the company’s networking technology to control dissent. Late last year, the US House of Representatives’ foreign affairs committee approved the Global Online Freedom Act, related legislation that would criminalize US companies that disclose customers’ personal information to repressive governments.

Cisco’s response in the judiciary committee hearing? The company sold about US$100,0000 worth of networking equipment to the Chinese which was used to build the country’s “Golden Shield” internet censorship and repression system.

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