I was thinking more in line with information like this. Censorship is bad enough, but it appears I might have confused Google with Yahoo when it comes to the matter of turning over the names of dissidents to the Chinese authorities. For that, I apologize. The guilty company was Yahoo.

Instead, Zhao's anger is targeted at Yahoo (Research). "A company such as Yahoo! which gives up information [about dissidents] is unforgivable," he says. "It would be for the good of the Chinese netizens if such a company could be shut down or get out of China forever."

As controversy heats up over the role of U.S. Internet companies in China, Yahoo finds itself in an unwelcome spotlight. The $5.3-billion-a-year company has been a darling of Silicon Valley, Wall Street, financial journalists and Internet users. But Yahoo has a China problem, and no easy way to solve it.

It's not just Zhao who is pointing fingers at Yahoo. Human rights activists, congressional critics and pundits, notably New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof, who used to be based in China, say that of all the U.S. Internet firms, Yahoo is most vulnerable to the charge that it helps the Chinese government repress political dissidents.

Yahoo provided data that was used in the prosecution of at least three dissidents, according to The Washington Post. The best known is Shi Tao, a journalist serving a 10-year sentence for leaking a propaganda directive.