This paper draws on James W. Carey’s historical analysis of the telegraph to frame the potential effects of a neutered American influence on a CCP-controlled Web. In doing so, it lays the groundwork for future exploration of America’s role within the Chinese Web and may help to better ground expectations of the Internet’s effect on Chinese society.

The paper focuses on Yahoo! Inc., a relatively small but growing player on the Chinese Internet. Yahoo’s effect on e-commerce capitalism, myth and symbol, and online censorship of political discourse is explored through an analysis of press releases and news articles about Yahoo's business in China.

When comparing Yahoo’s impact on ideology with Carey’s ideological analysis of the telegraph, certain parallels emerge. Yahoo and its foreign competitors have certainly helped open up e-commerce on the Chinese Internet; they also have carried the symbolic banners of technology and democracy and offered information that could potentially broaden political discourse and awareness of national history. Yet these positive influences have been blunted in every instance — either by the company itself or by the political landscape in which it operates, thus minimizing Yahoo’s influence on ideology in China.