Question

Discussion board question:

Discussing these questions will help you further appreciate the complexity of international business caused by the interplay of political, economic, and social forces:

1. In 2004, the Chinese authorities asked Yahoo! in China to submit the private email record of Shi Tao, a Chinese journalist. Apparently, the Chinese police wanted to use Yahoo!'s record to put Shi in jail for his dissenting views. What should Yahoo! do? The Shi Tao case caught the international community’s attention and was well covered by the world media. (Please be sure to complete the assigned readings in the assignments area, and do your own internet search on the case, so that you can have a well-informed discussion of it.)

Answer 1

The case of Chinese authorities asking Yahoo to share the mails of a journalist has caught the attention of the media worldwide. The Chinese authorities relented and provided the mails to the authorities. The Chinese authorities convicted the journalist based on evidence submitted by Yahoo.

In my views, Yahoo should have not accepted the demands for sharing the mail. By submitting itself to the authorities Yahoo has undermined its autonomy. Organizations are autonomous; they have their own internal structures and business processes. With passage of time, the interference of government in business has reduced. Scholars across the globe have believed in this concept that role of government in business must be restricted to facilitation; and regulation and interference must be avoided. In this case, Chinese authorities have gone too far asking for the personal details and Yahoo undermined its own autonomy by accepting to show the details. This incident is not only serious; it has potential to set a precedent in the future. Other countries may ask the personal details citing this particular case.