U.S.-China Internet Censorship Intervention: Is it about Human Rights or Economics?
March 10, 2010 - By Justin E. Gehrke
March 10, 2010 – Acoording to a Reuters report, U.S. Government officials are analyzing the possibility of using WTO provisions to challenge the legality of China’s continued censorship of the internet, within its borders. What is the catalyst for the sudden spring to action? With the alleged Google Hacking incident still a relatively fresh memory, one would think that the resultant use (at least partially anyway) by the hackers to target the Gmail accounts of Chinese human rights activists is sufficient to warrant political action.
Unfortunately, this may not exactly be the case. It seems the primary motive is to alleviate problems experienced by U.S. companies, like Google Corp (GOOG), who have operations in China. In addition to the difficulties Chinese internet censorship imposes upon U.S. companies, the U.S. is also developing a course of action to deal with Chinese business rules that favor companies, whose intellectual property will be used develop new products for China. U.S. opinion is that these types of business rules are counterproductive to global, economic development.
The U.S.-China relationship can be described, at best, as delicate. Based on that fact, the U.S. may consider a direct approach with Chinese Government officials as the fastest and most effective way to negotiating change. The key, though, is ensuring that all aspects of the problem are understood, before proceeding further. To this end, at a recent National Press club function, Ron Kirk, U.S. Trade Representative, remarked, “We are still dialoguing not just with Google, but with other Internet providers, to make sure we fully understand what is happening in China.”
A direct approach, in this case, would most likely take place through the U.S.-China Joint Commission on Commerce and Trade (JCCT). Kirk acknowledges that this route presents far greater opportunity for success, than does a legal filing, via the WTO. Pressured for several years by lobbyist groups, such as the First Amendment Coalition, to take decisive action, the U.S. Government is likely to move forward, especially considering the intellectual property theft aspects of the Google case.
While successful negotiations may lessen the level of censorship imposed by the Chinese Government on U.S. businesses, it will probably be of little help to the country’s citizens. Such action would likely be accomplished by a specialized internet access policy, at the country’s “top level” of internet censorship. Even then, the communications are certain to be under a program of monitoring.
In the end, the U.S. may achieve what it considers to be a small victory, but, as long as the country’s people, as a whole, remain censored in their web browsing, can anyone really be declared as being a winner?
Source: U.S. weighing China Internet censorship case
