China Represents Ethical Quagmire in High-Tech Age

THE CUTTING EDGE | INNOVATION / GARY CHAPMAN

January 27, 1997|GARY CHAPMAN

"I think it's time for some kind of corporate code of conduct," Munro said. "Something positive, that reflects the oft-stated goal of American firms for a free and democratic information society." He recommends, as a minimum, that U.S. firms decline to help foreign governments censor the Internet for political purposes or hide their human rights abuses.

In the 1970s, in the wake of widespread protests over U.S. investment in South Africa, American corporations adopted a code of conduct called the Sullivan Principles, which, among other things, banned apartheid policies in the workplace.

One of the examples that stood out most notoriously as a human rights issue in South Africa in that era was that the U.S. software product called Plato, developed by Control Data Corp., was used by the South African Security Forces to manage the hated passbook system, the basic documentary enforcement of apartheid.

The economic lure of China is orders of magnitude greater than that of South Africa 20 years ago, and the human rights abuses are similarly severe. When people who are influential in China, like Bill Gates and the managers of other American corporations, think about China, they should reflect on whether they are part of the problem or part of the solution.

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