><i>Now the European Union and the U.S. Trade Representative office are considering an argument that the Great Firewall violates China’s obligations to permit free trade in services under its agreements with the WTO.</i><p>I feel that if anyone were to pressure China in this manner, by citing this economic argument, it'd be quickly rebuffed by the Chinese as a necessary "political" control that can be found in a number of WTO member states.<p>Examples include limiting or even prosecuting hate speech (anti-religious, Holocaust denial, advocating genocide), blocking websites with illegal content (drug use, bomb manufacture, child pornography), and so on... The websites most noticeably blocked in China allow user-generated comments and videos that cannot be controlled by the Chinese government, but will have similarly illegal-in-China content (Tibet/Taiwan independence advocates, anti-government protesters).<p>There's little to this argument without appearing hypocritical to the Chinese government, and the firewall (GFW) is too important to their goal of a "Harmonious Society" - it will fall only if the Party falls.