Human Rights - Freedom of Expression
Trade

Some geniuses at China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology apparently believed that is is possible, and desirable, to emulate Qin Shihuangdi's great feat of the 3rd century BC -- to build a wall against foreign attacks, only this time to build a Green Dam on the internet against pornography and other “unhealthy information”, as the Ministry decreed that all personal computers sold in China after 1 July 2009 must be installed the filter software that would enable the government to regularly update computers with an ever-changing list of banned Web sites. The US Government lodged a protest with China, complaining that "China is putting companies in an untenable position by requiring them, with virtually no public notice, to pre-install software that appears to have broad-based censorship implications and network security issue". The American letter also suggested that the Chinese rule "raises fundamental questions regarding regulatory transparency and notes concerns about compliance with [WTO] rules, such as notification obligations". The EU reaction was much less subtle, as the European Commission said the Chinese measure was "clearly to censor the internet and limit freedom of expression." Bowing to the pressure of the seemingly porn-loving international community and domestic netizens, the Chinese Ministry delayed the mandatory installation of the filter. The Ministry argued that the measure is for the "public good" and does not contravene WTO rules.