Businesses say Chinese Internet control undermines trade

China's strong control of Internet communication undermines human rights and has significant impact on its relationship with the United States, witnesses told a joint congressional-executive commission on Thursday.

"Addressing Chinese censorship as a trade barrier is a legitimate, multilateral and potentially effective approach that needs to be pursued by our government at the highest levels," Ed Black, president of the Computer & Communications Industry Association said at the hearing of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China.

As the country that led the way in developing the Internet, the United States must likewise lead the effort to hold the Chinese government accountable, Black said.

Gilbert Kaplan, president of the Committee to Support U.S. Trade Laws, said China imposes "debilitating" burdens on foreign Internet service providers, and the censorship of websites can "inhibit or prevent altogether" the ability of U.S. companies to do businesses.

"China's blocking and filtering measures, and the fog of uncertainty surrounding what China's censors will and will not permit, violate numerous of China's international obligations," Kaplan said. "The negative impact of these violations on America's premier Internet companies is profound."

Last month U.S. trade representatives asked the World Trade Organization to press China for more information about its Internet controls.

But some U.S. companies that have been able to break into the Chinese market have come under some harsh criticism.

Thursday's hearing featured several witnesses who experienced China's repressive actions first hand. Alex Li, now a college student in Ohio, told of his journalist father's imprisonment for posting essays about the Communist Party.

Pastor John Zhang, who, like Li, stood to deliver his testimony, singled out the American tech giant Cisco for what he called "disgraceful" work with the Chinese government.

"I hope and believe that our Congress members will take the responsibilities to oversee U.S. companies like Cisco so they observe business ethics while maximizing their business interests in China," said Zhang, a Christian pastor and activist who spent two years in a Chinese prison.

"If some companies should break the U.S. laws and depart from the moral bottom line and business ethics, they should be subject to public criticism and condemnation, and economic penalties."

Cisco is fighting lawsuits from civil liberties groups over its contracts with the Chinese government, but the company has dismissed reports that its technology is used to repress dissent and monitor civilians.

"As a matter of policy, Cisco has not and will not sell video surveillance cameras or video surveillance management software in its public infrastructure projects in China. We were offered an opportunity to supply those products in Chongqing and, contrary to the suggestion in [news reports], declined that opportunity," Cisco general counsel Mark Chandler wrote in a blog post in June.

The hearing came as President Obama's nine-day trip though the Asia-Pacific region has ramped up political pressure on China. Obama has stuck to a characteristically more muted tone toward China than is often heard on Capitol Hill, but he warned that China needs to start to "play by the rules."