Overseas Chinese Democracy Coalition News and Article Release Issue Number: A669-O193

中国民主运动海外联席会议新闻与文章发布号：A669-O193

Release Date: Nov. 27, 2011

发布日：2011年11月27日

Topic: European Parliament Holds Human Rights Conference Discussing Internet freedom and Security -- Report by Radio Free Asia and Huang Ciping's Statement at the European Parliament (also in photos and audio)

标题：欧洲议会就网络自由和安全问题举办讨论会--自由亚洲电台的报道和黄慈萍在欧洲议会的讲话（及图片与录音）

Original Language Version: Chinese/English (Chinese version at the end)

此号以中/英文为准（英文在前，中文在后）

Note: Please use "Simplified Chinese (GB2312)" encoding to view the Chinese parts of this release. If this mail does not display properly in your email program, please send your request for special delivery to us or visit:

http://www.weijingsheng.org/report/report2011/report2011-11/HuangCPstatement111127inEuropeanParliamentA669-O193.htm　which contains identical information.

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European Parliament Holds Human Rights Conference Discussing Internet Freedom and Security

-- Radio Free Asia, 2011-11-24

Yesterday, the European Parliament had a panel discussion and debate with several previous Sakharov Prize winners regarding Internet freedom and security issues. Mr. Wei Jingsheng attended the discussion and spoke in this regard also.

The famous Chinese dissident Wei Jingsheng, who arrived Europe to visit, was the recipient of the 1996 Sakharov Prize established by the European Parliament. On Nov. 22 and 23, he was invited by the European Parliament to attend a series of activities in Brussels, the Capital of the European Union. The reporter learned that some of the Sakharov Prize laureates would hold a high level conference to discuss internet freedom and security. Thus, in the early morning of Nov. 24, this reporter interviewed Wei Jingsheng and asked him to introduce this activity.

Wei Jingsheng told the reporter: "Today (meaning Nov. 23), I attended a formal human rights conference held in the European Parliament. The focus of the day was about Internet freedom issues. The Sakharov Prize laureates participated in the discussion. Because we all know that the Internet played a large role in the Jasmine Revolution in the Arabic countries in the Middle East, we all pay great attention to this issue. The representatives of Google were present as well."

About his speech at the conference, Wei Jingsheng continued: "I asked a question that people thought is very important and were very supportive of me. I said, these years, the Internet is indeed very important. The Chinese people were among the first to use the Internet, and with a lot of capacity. In particular, the recent case of Ai Weiwei highlights the Chinese people's use of the Internet. They supported Ai Weiwei, producing a lot of pressure against the Chinese government. However, as we thank the Western companies for providing the Internet to the world, I pointed out that the first country to use Internet blockage is China as well, also using the Western technology. The big companies in the West sold the technology for monitoring and blocking the Internet for the Chinese government. Furthermore, some Western Internet companies, I named Yahoo! and Google, provided the private information of many Internet writers to the government. The government used this information as evidence in the Chinese courts, and sent the writers to jail.

The Google company representative made a response, which was followed by more detailed discussion. Wei said: "Of course, Google immediately explained that they did not supply private information. However, Ms. Huang Ciping, as a computer engineer and Internet expert, commented as follows. She said that many people went to jail after their Internet privacy was compromised and thus the Communist Party did get so-called evidence to sentence them. She mainly criticized the Internet companies' cooperation with the Chinese government by tacitly approving the Chinese government's viewing the dissidents' accounts. In fact, what Google did was remain silent while knowing that they were being monitored, instead of a direct cooperation.

These criticisms drew the support of everyone. After the conference, many people came over and shook hands with Huang Ciping, including the vice-president of the European Parliament and others. They all made a special effort to shake hands with us and told us that it was well said, very important, and so on."

Wei said the discussions also lead to responses and support from the participants from the Third World countries. "This revelation is not only telling the truth for the Chinese people, but also people from the other countries that were participating this conference, such as Iran, Azerbaijan, and Arabic countries, etc. They all said that the Internet in our country is not quite free and were also blocked, with technology provided by the West, etc. Thus, there was a small climax produced at the conference. Of course, the representative for Google also said that they will consider these issues to see what could be done, etc. Over all, the conference was good, and the atmosphere was good as well. People all care about Chinese human rights very much. They all know that the Chinese human rights situation is very bad."

The above is the report by Radio Free Asia's special correspondent Tian Yi, in Germany.

Original link of this report:

http://www.rfa.org/mandarin/guojishijiao/gr-11242011104720.html

report in audio:

http://www.weijingsheng.org/interviews/interviews2011/WeiJSonInternet111124inEuropeanParliament-RFA.mp3

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(Recap of ) the Statement by HUANG Ciping at the European Parliament's high-level Human Rights Conference and Sakharov Prize Network event on Nov. 23, 2011

My name is Ciping HUANG. I have been a human rights defender for more than 20 years, although I was trained as a physicist. I have been an Internet user for 27 years and was a computer network manager as well.

So using Internet as a tool to promote freedom and democracy has always be my interest and effort for all these years, in which I have accumulated enough experience and expertise.

What I want to say here is about the issue of the Western high tech and Internet companies' role in helping the Chinese Communist regime suppress people's desire for freedom and even resulting high risk to the dissidents. These companies include Cisco, Yahoo!, Google, etc.

Cisco helped the Chinese government build surveillance systems and firewalls on the Internet. Yahoo! willingfully helped the Chinese government track down dissidents, to the degree that many dissidents were sent to jail, including Shi Tao, who received 10 years of sentence. Google on the other hand, did not reveal that their accounts are unsafe even though they should have - months before Google publicly announced they were hacked, we already knew that dissidents' gmail accounts were infiltrated; the year before Google's admission, I confirmed that gmail accounts were not safe indeed.

These companies should know that this kind of conduct put the dissidents and activists in danger.

However, even though Yahoo! provided more than 20 million dollars for victims' compensation, it only meant to keep them silent, instead of really helping Chinese freedom and human rights. The company was more concerned about its stock price than morality.

In addition to tracking IP addresses, in the past, a dissident inside China could make a phone call from a public phone booth to us for almost half an hour before being tracked down by the police. Nowadays, it takes less than 5 minutes. All of these "improvements" are due to the help of the Western companies that provide the technology.

When I was detained by the Chinese Communist authority, they asked me to use my skill to help them., "so you could become a billionaire like so and so". But I told them that I do not bother to be that kind of person. It would violate my moral standard. These Western companies are composed of individual people as well. I wish they had their basic morals as well, above their stock prices.

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Related photos:

Wei Jingsheng with the European Parliament Poster for the 1996 Sakharov Prize (photo credit: Ciping HUANG):

http://www.weijingsheng.org/pic/newsletters/newsletters2011/newsletters2011-4/WeiJSposter111123SakharovLounge-6.jpg

Wei Jingsheng at the Inauguration of the "Sakharov Lounge" (photo credit: European Parliament):

http://www.weijingsheng.org/pic/newsletters/newsletters2011/newsletters2011-4/WeiJS111123SakharovLounge.jpg

Wei Jingsheng cuts the ribbon for the "Sakharov Lounge" (photo credit: European Parliament):

http://www.weijingsheng.org/pic/newsletters/newsletters2011/newsletters2011-4/WeiJS111123ribboncutting.jpg

Wei Jingsheng with Libor Rou?ek, Vice-President of the European Parliament (photo credit: Ciping HUANG):

http://www.weijingsheng.org/pic/newsletters/newsletters2011/newsletters2011-4/WeiJSinEP111123RoucekL-c-3.jpg

The Sakharov Prize Network high level human rights conference in the European Parliament:

http://www.weijingsheng.org/pic/newsletters/newsletters2011/newsletters2011-4/HRconference111123inEP-c-6.jpg

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中文版

Overseas Chinese Democracy Coalition News and Article Release Issue Number: A669-O193

中国民主运动海外联席会议新闻与文章发布号：A669-O193

Release Date: Nov. 27, 2011

发布日：2011年11月27日

标题：欧洲议会就网络自由和安全问题举办讨论会--自由亚洲电台的报道和黄慈萍在欧洲议会的讲话（及图片与录音）

Original Language Version: Chinese/English (Chinese version at the end)

此号以中/英文为准（英文在前，中文在后）

如有中文乱码问题，请与我们联系或访问:

http://www.weijingsheng.org/report/report2011/report2011-11/HuangCPstatement111127inEuropeanParliamentA669-O193.htm

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欧洲议会就网络自由和安全问题举办讨论会

2011-11-24

欧洲议会日前就网络自由和安全问题和历届萨哈洛夫人权奖获得者一起举办讨论会。1996年萨哈罗夫奖得主魏京生先生参加了该讨论会，并就中国的网络自由、人权等问题发言。

上周末到达欧洲进行访问的中国著名异议人士魏京生，是欧洲议会设立的萨哈洛夫奖的九六年获得者，二十二号、二十三号他应欧洲议会邀请在欧盟首都布鲁塞尔参加了一系列的各种活动。记者获悉，二十三号部分历届萨哈洛夫奖获得者，在欧洲议会举行了一个大型座谈会，为此二十四号凌晨，记者采访了魏京生，请他介绍了这个活动。

魏京生对记者说，"今天参加了欧洲议会的一个正式的有关人权方面的会议。今天重点谈的是网络自由问题，参加者都是萨哈洛夫奖的获奖者。因为大家都知道，茉莉花革命、中东的阿拉伯国家的革命主要是网络起了很大的作用。所以，今天大家都非常重视这个问题，包括谷歌公司的代表都在场。"

关于他在这个会议上的发言，魏京生接着介绍说："我当时提了一个问题，大家都觉得提的很重要，很支持我。我说，这些年网络确实很重要。中国人民利用网络也是最早的，而且相当有实力。特别是最近的艾未未案件，就凸显出中国老百姓利用网络，全体支持艾未未，给中国政府造成很大压力。但是，我们在感谢西方的公司给全世界提供网络的同时，我提出来，实际上最早封锁网络的是中国，而且他完全利用的是西方的技术，西方这些大公司卖给中国政府技术，封锁网络。而且西方的一些网络公司，我点了名字，雅虎和谷歌，向中国政府提供很多网络作家的隐私，给中国的法庭提供证据，导致这些作家蹲监狱。"

对此，出席会议的谷歌公司做了回应并引发了具体的讨论。对此魏京生介绍说，"当然谷歌公司马上出来解释，说我们没有。但是，跟着黄慈萍女士以一个电脑工程师专家发言说，很多的人都是因为网络泄密后，共产党掌握了所谓的证据后被判刑的，重点批评了这些网络公司和中国政府的合作，包括默认中国政府的偷看。谷歌公司实际上就是默认，不是直接的合作。

这些批评引起全场大家的支持，散会后，很多人跑过来和黄慈萍握手，包括欧洲议会的议长、副议长都专门跑过来和我们握手，说讲得很好，非常重要等等。"

魏京生说，讨论也引起所有与会的第三世界国家代表的响应和支持。"这个不单是替中国人民说出了实话，而且参与会议的其他国家，包括伊朗的、阿塞拜疆的等等，包括阿拉伯国家的，都说我们国家的网络也是不自由的，也是被封锁的，也是西方提供的技术等等，会议上等于掀起了一个小小的高潮。当然谷歌公司的代表也说，我们会考虑这些问题，会努力看看能够做什么等等。总之会议不错，气氛很好。大家也很重视中国的人权问题，知道中国的人权问题很糟糕。"

以上是自由亚洲电台特约记者天溢由德国发来的报道。

报道的原始连接：

http://www.rfa.org/mandarin/guojishijiao/gr-11242011104720.html