Last week, the Foreign Affairs Committee of the House of Representatives approved legislation to make it illegal for U.S. Internet hosting companies to give users’ personal information to governments that restrict Internet access. The legislation is aimed at China, as well as companies like Google--which has reportedly censored search engine results in China--and Yahoo, which shared information with the Chinese government that led to the jailing of dissident Shi Tao.

The case of Shi Tao seems to be breathing life into a debate that went nowhere last year. While Speaker Hastert was no fan of the Chinese government, he had no desire to sour U.S.-China relations; this legislation gained no traction under Republican rule. Speaker Pelosi, however, has been more direct and passionate in her criticisms of China and its human rights record. Furthermore, a Yahoo representative testified before Congress early in 2006 that his company had not shared information that led to Shi Tao's arrest; it subsequently became clear that that testimony was false. Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang has been called to testify next Tuesday, and the company has made it clear that Congress will get an apology:

A senior executive at Yahoo Inc. will apologize to a House panel next week for failing to return with added information concerning circumstances under which the company agreed to cooperate with a request by the Chinese government for information on one of its users.

"Months after I testified before two House subcommittees on Yahoo's approach to business in China, I realized Yahoo had additional information about a 2004 order issued by the Chinese government seeking information about a Yahoo China user. I neglected to directly alert the committee of this new information, and that oversight led to a misunderstanding that I deeply regret and have apologized to the committee for creating," said Michael Callahan, executive vice president and general counsel at Yahoo, said in a statement released Thursday...

According to people who were present at them, there were three meetings between Yahoo executives and committee staffers in late August and early September.

A spokeswoman for the company said he would formally repeat that apology at a hearing the panel is holding next week.

The dustup between Yahoo and the Committee will likely take a while to settle. In the meantime, there's no indication as to how the Democratic leadership will handle Congressman Smith's legislation. Will it be considered on the House floor, or will the committee be satisfied simply with raising the profile of the issue?

When Speaker Pelosi has waded into foreign policy, it has usually led to a black eye for Congressional Democrats. Would a rebuke to China over civil rights help or hurt?