Can the mouse be mightier than the Golden Shield?
Cyber-speak has created many new words, but perhaps no metaphors more appropriate than the ‘Stainless Steel Mouse’ and the ‘Golden Shield’ to describe the new challenges faced by human rights defenders and political dissenters in China, against the increasingly pervasive surveillance of Internet use by the state authorities. The CHR is the appropriate international forum to scrutinise the violation of the right to freedom of expression by the Chinese authorities. There is, however, no China resolution on the table at the 59th Session, as the majority of the Western Group members continue to pursue a bilateral dialogue on human rights in China. If Western Group members are committed to this dialogue, then a good start would be to hold to account those companies in their own jurisdictions who are providing the necessary expertise and technology to China, which is knowingly being used in this latest chapter of the suppression of freedom of expression and freedom of association in China.
