As a “fundamentally domestic affair”, the domestic markets that have been difficult to penetrate with foreign media products. The WTO obligations state that they must allow reasonable flow of products into and out of China to ensure that the entire global markets are operating in a fair manner. The first WTO trade case for the nation, China – Publications and Audiovisual Products, underscored and reframed their obligations to their trade partners to not outright ban importing movies into China. It is understandable that China wishes to maintain a state run enterprise in all available areas, but it is difficult to continue to allow to make exceptions for China in these circumstances, from the perspective of the WTO. It was a remarkable victory for the global markets to have the ascension of the nation into the organization. As it has been stated, it would be difficult for the WTO to truly be a global regulatory organization without the partnership of one of the largest exporter/importer in China. Yet, their seeming unwillingness to abide by the spirit of China – Publications and Audiovisual Products, it speaks to a particular contentious relationship between China and their trade partners. Notably, the text offers a prognostication that the procedural aspects of China’s Internet censorship may be in violation of WTO norms and rules, potentially causing yet another case to be undertaken to provide some respite for the other trade partners attempting to be more in line with these WTO standards. This is an issue that has no straightforward result without ignoring the immense history of singular cultural attempts in China.
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