IQRA UNIVERSITY

NAME: Rakesh kumar

REG NO:5234

SUBJECT: CROSS CULTURE MANAGEMENT (SAT 6-9)

FACULTY: SIR SHAHNAWAZ

Date: Saturday 12-3-2011

Assignment no:2
Human rights issues faced by MNC’s in China
China is the biggest economy in the world having population of over 1.3 Billion. Every company
is attracted toward it because of huge number of consumers and cheap labor in production of
goods. Foreign internet search engines including Microsoft Bing!, Yahoo!, Google Search
China have come under criticism for aiding in these practices, including banning the word
"democracy" from its chat rooms in China. Yahoo! in particular, stated that it will not protect the
privacy and confidentiality of its Chinese customers from the authorities.

Google
Most of the criticism relates to Google's Chinese language service Google.cn, which was
launched in April 2006.China is one of the world's largest economies, but hundreds of millions
of Chinese internet users are denied the basic access to information that people around the world
take for granted.

This blocking of search results abuses the right to freedom of expression, which includes the
rights to seek and impart information. In addition to interfering with human rights, Google’s
search filtering would seem to violate its own organizational mission to make information
“universally accessible”.

Yahoo
In 2002 Yahoo voluntarily signed the 'Public Pledge on Self-discipline for the Chinese Internet
Industry'. Among other things, the Pledge requires Yahoo to 'refrain from producing, posting or
disseminating harmful information that may jeopardize state security and disrupt social stability,
contravene laws and regulations and spread superstition and obscenity'

Microsoft
Microsoft launched MSN Spaces in China in June 2005, attempts to create blogs with words
including ‘democracy’, ‘human rights’ and ‘freedom of expression’ were blocked, producing the
following error message (in Chinese): ‘You must enter a title for your space. The title must not
contain prohibited language, such as profanity. Please type a different title.’ Tests by Amnesty
International carried out in June 2006 demonstrated continued blocking of certain terms
including ‘Tiananmen incident’ in the title of blogs
Microsoft voluntarily signed the 'Public Pledge on Self-discipline for the Chinese Internet
Industry'. Which required Microsoft to 'refrain from producing, posting or disseminating harmful
information that may jeopardize state security and disrupt social stability, contravene laws and
regulations and spread superstition and obscenity'. Microsoft was under no legal obligation to
sign this pledge but they did.

Nike
The company has been subject to much critical coverage of the often poor working conditions
and exploitation of cheap overseas labor employed in the free trade zones where their goods are
typically manufactured. There are some sweatshop are running in china. Where workers have to
work in polluted environment, without precautions. Although these sweatshops were banned in
world after world war 2. The government of china is not taking actions against them.

Suggestions:
China no doubt is a biggest economy in the world. But it should think for the rights of people
living in the country. They should bring democracy and give initiative to freedom of speech in
china. China should take actions against MNC’s exploiting human rights and government should
change it’s policies

Human rights conditions in the People’s Republic of China remain a central issue in U.S.-China
relations. US having nothing against china trying to halt the growth of china through various
means. U.S. administrations since 1989 have employed broadly similar strategies for promoting
human rights in China. Some experts argue that economic and diplomatic engagement with
China has failed to set any real political change in motion. In this context, some argue that U.S.
efforts to promote democracy and human rights have been largely ineffectual, failing to
overcome the political system in china.