China’s censorship policies are not only an affront to human and free-speech rights, but they are also a blatant form of protectionism that is likely illegal under the current international trading regime, according to two experts on the matter.

Fredrik Erixon and Hosuk Lee-Makiyama, members of the European Centre for International Political Economy in Brussels writing in The Wall Street Journal, claim that China’s censorship policies may be illegal, according to the World Trade Organization, because they not only block political speech and thought, but international commerce as well.

“Blocking the Internet blocks commerce and trade, and China’s latest moves may well run afoul of its World Trade Organization commitments,” they write.

The Great Firewall, as it is known in China, is a vast infrastructure of technology designed to keep an eye on any potential online dissent. In fact, according to the UK’s The Guardian, China has an internet police force of over 30,000 just to monitor content.

China’s censorship policy is considered “pervasive,” lowest rating possible, according to the OpenNet Initiative. Censored subjects include democracy, religion, the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989, Taiwan independence and a whole host of other subjects. But, according to Erixon and Lee-Makiyama, Chinese censorship goes well beyond the politically sensitive.

“Online censorship has become a tool of industrial policy, effectively discriminating against foreign suppliers,” they write.

The censorship is a direct violation of China’s agreement with the WTO. When entering in 2001, China agreed to give equal and unlimited access to foreign-based goods and services, including online services. However, China’s crackdown on the internet has become more draconian recently. Many outside Web sites must apply for a license in order to avoid being blocked by the government. This past summer, Beijing tried to require that all computer imports be equipped with software that would make it easier and more efficient for the government to track a user’s online activity. Most wireless technology in the country is forbidden.

“How do you assess an investment opportunity if no reliable information about social tension, corruption or local trade unions is available,” the French organization Observatoire International des Crises asked in 2007 after being banned in China. “The [Chinese] government attaches as much importance to the censorship of economic data as political content.”

According to Erixon and Lee-Makiyama, the U.S. and European Union must ban together and put pressure on China to reform through the WTO.

“The online market in China is simply too big for Europe and the U.S. to let trade-distorting regulations pass without action,” they write. “Victories at the WTO on this front would be wins both for commerce and for civil rights.”

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