internet - Did Yahoo have a way out?

Yahoo fond itself in hot water as it helped China's judicial authorities to deliver evidence that convicted Chinese journalist Shi Tao for sending 'state secrets' to foreigners, using his China-based Yahoo account.
The Angry Chinese Blogger illustrates that Yahoo did have an alternative and collected information on the US$ 50 million deal between AOLTime-Warner and now Lenovo (then Legend) that fell apart early 2004. AOL did not want to comply with the "unreasonable demands" it got from not further identified 'authorities in Beijing". AOL CEO Richard Parson feared the fallout of such a move among its consumers in the US, he said.

Top among the reasons cited by Chief Executive Parson, as being behind the ending of the partnership, was the insistence by Beijing that Government agencies be allow to intercept, modify and retain data being sent to and from the online subscribers; a move that would have enabled Chinese security forces to eavesdrop on anybody in China who used AOL’s software or servers to access the Internet, and to block any or all content as they saw fit.