WTO Jangles Keys to China Censorship (Excerpts)

• Author: Richard Komaiko

A landmark event occurred last week that could change everything you think you know about censorship in China.

The United States Trade Representative (USTR), which is the department of the United States government responsible for international trade matters, filed a request for consultations at the World Trade Organization (WTO) pertaining to China's Internet censorship regime. The rest of this article will be devoted to explaining the significance of this development.

A request for consultations is not a formal complaint. Rather, it is a series of questions posed by one country to another about asensitive issue, where the country receiving the request is required to answer the questions or else face a formal complaint. How China answers these poignant questions could hold the key to the future of freedom of information in the People's Republic of China.

Current consultations:

In the current round of consultations, the US has indicated that it believes that China's Internet censorship regime might be inconsistent with China's WTO obligations. One of the obligations that China accepted when it joined the WTO was to publish and make publicly available English translations of all laws and regulations that affect international commerce.

Most foreign businesses have websites. Often times, however, foreign business websites are blocked in China. The high-profile cases are tech giants like Facebook, Twitter and Google, but those are only the tip of the iceberg. The much larger problem is for humble little brick and mortar businesses - companies that are neither famous nor well known - whose websites are blocked in China.

China is now legally required to appear before the WTO and answer these questions. Obviously, this puts the Chinese government in a tricky position. If it chooses not to...