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by jackvalentine 3119 days ago
I would like to see western governments treat Chinese censorship as non-tariff barriers to trade when negotiating trade agreements.

Unfortunately for the most part western governments seem to have the same problem as western countries in not wanting to be frozen out of China and thus don't overtly question NTBs.
3 comments
Shivetya 3119 days ago
You are pretty much correct, as it stands now China pretty much gets to walk over the WTO so I don't think many other actions are possible.

As Apple demonstrates all too well, there are companies willing to drop all their moral pretenses to do business there. What they will rant on and on about in their home countries they willingly turn a blind eye to so that they can secure their place in China's market.

Still what can you do? Companies like Apple are subject to investors and public pressure. There are more than a few bloggers who can rub Apple's nose in it enough to get attention. I still think if not for the recent concerted effort of bloggers earlier this year Apple would have ignored the Mac Pro market indefinitely. If Apple can be moved to state support for an embarrassingly languishing product line then why not force their hand when it comes to standing up for the same morals/standards here and there?

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jackvalentine 3119 days ago
*companies. Goddamnit.
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eighthnate 3118 days ago
> I would like to see western governments treat Chinese censorship as non-tariff barriers to trade when negotiating trade agreements.

Considering the west censors also, the chinese would laugh in our face. Weren't there chinese tourists who got locked up and fined in germany for silly speech recently? Weren't we all celebrating the censorship of the "alt-right"? Didn't we have celebrate the attacks on russian "fake news"? At worst, the chinese would simply justify their censorship by labeling apps as spreading fake news just like we do.

> Unfortunately for the most part western governments seem to have the same problem as western countries in not wanting to be frozen out of China and thus don't overtly question NTBs.

There you go. You act like NTBs go one way. We also have non-tariff trade barriers. Not only that, we also force other countries to end business transactions with china due to "national security concerns".

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jackvalentine 3118 days ago
> Considering the west censors also...<snip>

> There you go. You act like NTBs go one way. We also have non-tariff trade barriers.

No you misunderstand my point. My desire is that western governments treat Chinese censorship as NTBs when negotiating trade but they currently do not for fear of being simply frozen out of that market.

I make no comment nor judgement on western NTBs nor do I have an opinion on what the Chinese government should do from their side of the negotiating table in response to what they see as imbalances or NTBs. They should obviously do what is best for them.

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