Ethan Gutmann

Ethan Gutmann is an investigative writer, human rights defender, China watcher, author, and a former adjunct fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. Gutmann's writing on China is widely published. He has contributed to online publications at least as far back as 1999, and is best known as the author of two books: Losing the New China: A Story of American Commerce, Desire and Betrayal and The Slaughter: Mass Killings, Organ Harvesting, and China's Secret Solution to Its Dissident Problem.

Gutmann has testified before the U.S. Congress, the U.S. House Committee on Foreign Affairs, the European Parliament, and the United Nations.

Gutmann earned a Bachelor of Arts and a Master of International Affairs at Columbia University.

Jay Nordlinger wrote that Gutmann's 2004 book "was about the sordid relationship between the American business community and the Chinese Communist Party. Our businessmen accommodate themselves to the Communist Party, and turn a blind eye to persecution." Sometimes they even assist the persecution, as when Cisco and other technology companies devised special ways to monitor and arrest Falun Gong practitioners".

Evidence of Cisco's activities in China became public in Gutmann's book.

Before 1999, Falun Gong practitioners didn't systematically use the Internet as an organizing tool. After the persecution of Falun Gong began in 1999, they were isolated, fragmented, and looking for a way to organize and change government policy. They went online, used code words, avoided precise details and communicated in short bursts. But like a cat listening to mice, the 6-10 Office could find their exact location, having developed the ability to search and spy as a result of a joint venture between the Shandong Province public security bureau and Cisco Systems. The result was a comprehensive database of people's personal information, including the 6-10 Office's Falun Gong lists and a wraparound surveillance system that was quickly distributed to other provinces. The Chinese authorities called it the Golden Shield, and Hao Fengjun used it on a daily basis. "As far as following practitioners" he said, "the Golden Shield includes the ability to monitor online chatting services and email, identifying and all of the person's previous communication, and then being able to lock in on the person's location, because a person will usually use the computer at home or at work." Then the arrest is made.

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