The Shi Tao Case: its development in Mainland China

The Chinese government's imprisonment of Mainland journalist Shi Tao on the basis of evidence provided by Yahoo! aroused great concern both in Mainland China domestically and internationally. Being a multinational corporation with a huge number of users of its services, Yahoo!'s ‘assistance’ to the Chinese authorities in the prosecution of Shi Tao has become the focus of discussions, while a detailed discussion of the Shi Tao case itself is lacking. Based on the litigation documents of the Shi Tao case that are available in the public domain, and news reports and commentaries relating to this case, this paper aims at filling this gap by presenting a detailed account of the development of the Shi Tao case in Mainland China.