The latest Wired has some unpleasant things to say about Yahoo and the Chinese government.

And a fellow named Wang Xiaoning, who wrote a blog. Or, more likely, a Yahoogroup. It seems ironic (to me) that these are also the main way I've seen adoptive parents get to know each other during the process -- the long wait. Because some parents write about family stuff, these are often protected, members-only spaces, where you have to log in as a member to read what's being written.

Mr. Wang wrote anonymously about politics.

...[D]ownstairs, her husband, Wang Xiaoning, is on the computer. Wang writes about politics, anonymously e-mailing his online e-journals to a group of Yahoo users. He's been having problems with his Yahoo service recently. He thinks it's a technical issue. This is the day he learns he's wrong.

Wang picks up the phone: "Yes?"

"Are you home?" asks the unfamiliar voice on the other end.

"Yes."

The line goes dead.

Moments later, government agents swarm through the front door -- 10 of them, some in uniform, some not. They take Wang away. They take his computers and disks. They shove an official notice into Yu's hands, tell her to keep quiet, and leave. This is how it's done in China. This is how the internet police grab you.

So. That's pretty dramatic.

But if the guy's writing anonymously using something as secure as Yahoogroups, how could they have tracked him down?

"Yahoo betrayed my husband and deprived him of freedom," Yu says through a translator, her voice trembling. "Yahoo must learn its lesson."

Yu's husband is now in Beijing Prison No. 2, serving a 10-year sentence for inciting subversion with his pro-democracy internet writings. According to the written court verdict, the Chinese government convicted Wang, in part, on evidence provided by Yahoo.

...and...

Yahoo and its subsidiaries, which provide web mail and the Yahoo Groups service to the Chinese market, have faced the harshest criticism. The company has been called out no fewer than four times by human rights groups for complying with Chinese government demands for sensitive information about journalists and online dissidents. Writers such as Shi Tao, Li Zhi and Jiang Lijun are all in prison for "crimes" similar to Wang's -- and Yahoo allegedly helped put each of them there.

There's more at the link.

So, uh... see you on the Yahoogroups?

Or maybe not.