7 ms·
Having spent the last few weeks in Beijing, I can't help but think that any reasonable trade compromise should essentially require that China get rid of its Gre
by zavi 8y ago
Having spent the last few weeks in Beijing, I can't help but think that any reasonable trade compromise should essentially require that China get rid of its Great Firewall. When you block and throttle essentially any foreign digital product and service in this day and age you are not practicing free trade. Tariffs / IP protections / dumping / FDI restrictions are all important but so long as the Firewall is in place international community should block China from selling any digital and physical goods. WTO rules should be updated to forbid digital blocking and throttling.
- chj 8y agostrange thing is that it is often ignored in trade negotiations.
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- adventured 8y agoThe firewall and aggressive social repression in general is a red line for China, much like their claims of owning Taiwan and the inevitability of annexation. The dictatorship that runs China - both the remaining old party system and the new system run by Xi - can't exist without the firewall, it's off limits accordingly. China won't come to the table if you put the firewall in the list of things to be negotiated, that's why it so rarely comes up. For them what that means is, they'd rather suffer any external consequences in trade & economy, and the domestic suffering that passes on to the people, than give up their reign.
- piiswrong 8y agoThe firewall will disappear when China has a strong enough propaganda machine that can counter the western propaganda machine (think Hollywood & BBC). China has been working on it for a few years. Shouldn't take too long. Maybe a decade or so.
- StreamBright 8y agoThe firewall is there so that Facebook and similar companies made it possible to Russia and other states to interfere with election in the US cannot do the same in China. Yes, China has elections. I think most western people believe that propaganda that the firewall is a tool for oppression.
- ardy42 8y ago> The firewall is there so that Facebook and similar companies made it possible to Russia and other states to interfere with election in the US cannot do the same in China. No. The great firewall is mainly there to prevent the Chinese people from organizing and disseminating information in ways that challenge the government [1]. They want to prevent something like the Arab Spring or the color revolutions [2]. Since you bring up Russian election interference: some Chinese government actions on the internet actually resemble Russian troll armies more than anything else [3]. [1] https://gking.harvard.edu/publications/how-censorship-china-allows-government-criticism-silences-collective-expression https://gking.harvard.edu/publications/how-censorship-china-... [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arab_Spring https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arab_Spring [3] https://gking.harvard.edu/50c https://gking.harvard.edu/50c > Yes, China has elections. So have the Soviet Union and all kinds of dictatorships [4]. There's a big difference between having party-controlled "elections" and free and fair elections. The PRC most certainly does not have the latter. [4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Election#Sham_election https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Election#Sham_election
- ethbro 8y agoAs a Bahraini friend told me, "Iran has democratic elections." To which I replied, "What about the weeding out and approval process required for candidates?" To which he replied, "Well, you can't have a sheep herder run for President and win." On that basis, I believe America has proven the supremacy of its democracy, for better or worse.
- sidlls 8y agoSome would argue the process we (Americans) use to select candidates is different only by appearance, for offices that actually have any power anyway.
- kmlx 8y agoisn't this like asking the US to give up their "Strong dollar policy"/Exchange Rate Weapon?