In a recent interview with the Financial Times, Bill Gates dropped an interesting idea about how the US government might help businesses avoid becoming accessories to political repression in China. “I think something like the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act has been a resounding success in terms of very clearly outlining what companies can’t do,” the Microsoft chairman said, referring to the law that bars US companies from paying bribes overseas.

When Congress held hearings on this issue last week, Yahoo’s lawyer more or less begged for legislative intervention. Of course, technology executives are trying to defer responsibility for their own decisions to co-operate with Chinese censorship. Yahoo, which provided evidence that helped imprison Shi Tao, a Chinese journalist, presents the most egregious example. But corporate leaders asking for government regulation is a rare enough spectacle to command attention.