Censorship in China was one of the “opportunities” seen by network router corporation Cisco Systems, according to a presentation leaked just before a hearing of the US Senate Subcommittee on Human Rights. The document (a series of slides from 2002) describes in part the Chinese government’s Golden Shield project. One slide lists its goals of stopping network crime, guaranteeing security and services, and to “combat ‘Falun Gong’ evil religion and other hostiles”. The next slide notes “Cisco Opportunities” in planning, construction, training and operational maintenance.There has been a longstanding controversy over western corporations collaborating with censorship by authoritarian regimes. Cisco Systems in particular has faced accusations of providing custom hardware for the “Great Firewall of China”, charges it has repeatedly denied. So any new evidence of an association between Cisco and China censorship will reopen suspicions about its possible role in enabling repression.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2008/may/29/censorship.humanrights