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|6.27.04 @ 6:51AM|#
Perhaps it's just bureaucratic inefficiency, or a shortage of scumbags to do the filtering.
Should we look at this glass half empty or half full? Two things are for sure; free trade with China has, on net (no pun intended), exerted pressure on the government to loosen things up, and also; trade should in no way be subsidized by the US taxpayer-not thru the IMF, the World Bank or that stupid agency that subsidizes the building of foreign infrastructure on behalf of privileged US corporations. Kevin Carson knows the name.
When trade is free and not subsidized, free market pressure may be brought against that censorship. It also just isn't fair to force people to subsidize censorship, and that's what's happening in this case since the Chinese regime also benefits from this trade.
Of course, there is a strong and principled general case against subsidized trade but this case is enhanced against China not only due to this shameful censorship, but also due to the regime's murderous occupation of Tibet.
Now; one may ask that; if trade with China is a force for more liberty there, then might subsidized trade yield more trade thus, more of this pressure? Perhaps, but there in no evidence of a linier relationship here. It might be that the Chinese regime prefers just enough liberalization to allow the support of the trade's requirement for information, and perhaps some PR, but no more.
By way of analogy: If a crook pull off a really big heist it might enable him to go straight, maybe even attend collage or something. But, it is still not fair to the victim. In the case of subsidized trade with China, the victim is the US taxpayer who objects to having to line the pockets of government privileged corporations, and also China's censorship and brutal occupation of Tibet.