The Mighty Pen, the Almighty Dollar, and the Holy Hammer and Sickle

On April 10, 2007, the United States took the unprecedented move by filing two complaints against China in the WTO. While there have been a lot of discussions on the first complaint, i.e., the case on measures affecting the protection and enforcement of intellectual property rights, the second compliant has received little attention. In my view, the second complaint is more interesting as it illustrates the tension between trade liberalization and open economy on the one side, and political censorship and ideological control on the other side, which is the defining feature of the Chinese society today.

I will be presenting my latest paper on this case at the International Conference on"Culture Diversity under International Trade Regime: Policy and Practices", which will be held at the National Taiwan University in Taipei this Wednesday and Thursday. You can find more details about the conference here.