Tue October, 2020, Age: 3 years
A representative for China said at a closed-door meeting on Friday that the U.S.’ discussed bans of Chinese social media apps TikTok and WeChat “are clearly inconsistent with WTO rules, restrict cross-border trading services and violate the basic principles and objectives of the multilateral trading system”. In the same meeting, the U.S. defended its actions on national security grounds. As of right now, the Chinese complaint will not have any consequences on its own, although China could next move to launch an official legal complaint to the WTO in Geneva. Many valid criticisms have been made of the motivations behind and procedures for the U.S. ban, but the Chinese complaint last Friday smacks of hypocrisy — China’s restrictive notion of cyber-sovereignty has led to the ongoing bans of U.S. internet giants such as Facebook and Google.