Cisco Helps China Crack Down on Dissidents, Lawsuit Alleges

Posted 05/23/2011 at 11:11am | by Brad Chacos

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Remember Google's shouting match with China last year? It got so bad that Hillary Clinton ended up comparing the "Great Firewall of China" to the Berlin Wall, and Google threatened to pull out of the country. Now, a new lawsuit alleges that Cisco may have helped to build that wall.

The Human Rights Law Foundation brought the lawsuit on behalf of 11 members of the Falun Gong, a spiritual movement oppressed in China. The suit claims that Cisco not only helped to design the Great Firewall, but that the company helped tweak the software to better help stamp out the Falun Gong.

An article in the New York Times states that a PowerPoint sales presentation leaked in 2008 exposed Cisco's involvement in China, and that it contained the phrase "douzheng evil Falun Gong cult and other hostile elements." During the Chinese Revolution, the communist party used the term "douzheng" synonymously with "persecute undesirable elements." The lawsuit says Falun Gong members identified by the Firewall were tortured and killed.

In a rebuttal to the New York Times article, the company responded: "Cisco does not operate networks in China or elsewhere, nor does Cisco customize our products in any way that would facilitate censorship or repression.” I guess we'll see if the court agrees?