China and Search Engines and Congress, Oh My

"A congressional committee will question representatives from major Internet companies Wednesday about their business practices in China. Several of the companies skipped an earlier hearing, citing scheduling conflicts.

The Net companies have come under harsh criticism of late for the way they do business with China. Google was roundly criticized for offering up a Chinese version of its search engine that censors words and images objectionable to the Chinese government. And Yahoo has been accused of helping Chinese authorities track down dissident journalists.

Yahoo put out a statement ahead of the hearing saying that the company was "deeply concerned by efforts of governments to restrict and control open access to information and communication," and that industry and government should work together to develop policies for doing business in restrictive countries."

Edited to Add: Here are a few links from around the Web on the hearings and Chinese censorship issues today:

• Via John Battelle, RedState is doing live blogging from the hearings themselves.
• Human Rights in China: watchdog group for human rights issues in China
• Resource Shelf: direct links to Prepared Statements from Subcommittee on Africa, Global Human Rights and International Operations Hearing (2/15/06).
• U.S. tech and online companies resist charges their actions helped China suppress dissent: from the AP
• State Dept. Launches "Global Internet Freedom" Force: "In light of the recent controversy over several U.S. companies' compliance with Chinese censorship policies, the U.S. Department of State is launching a task force to monitor threats to an ongoing open Internet by repressive governments."
• Why tech is right on China: "Big tech -- Google, Yahoo, Microsoft, Cisco -- has been summoned to House hearings this week to explain its actions on China. The hearing was triggered by Google's decision to censor search results as directed by the Chinese government as the price of operating there. No explanations will be good enough. Subcommittee Chairman Chris Smith, New Jersey Republican, has said: "It is astounding that Google, whose corporate philosophy is 'don't be evil,' would enable evil by cooperating with China's censorship policies just to make a buck."
• Is Google turning towards the dark side?: "Along with recent concerns over Google Desktop, Google's acquiescence to censorship in China has many people questioning whether Google is staying true to its unofficial motto, "don't be evil."