
China says India’s ban on Chinese apps may violate WTO rules - abc-xyz
https://www.sharenet.co.za/views/views-article.php?views-article=447681
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NiceWayToDoIT
When I was in China at airport you could see that Youtube, Facebook, WhatsUp,
Viber, and even Google are forbidden. I am curious to know what China says
about that?

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mytailorisrich
The ban is political and China's response is political.

But what they are getting at, perhaps not unreasonably, is that it looks like
all these apps were banned because they are by Chinese companies, which may be
discriminatory under WTO rules.

This is not what China does. China, like other countries, blocks specific
websites and apps because of their contents or functionality, not because of
their origin (at least if they do they tend to be smart enough to be subtle
about it...)

I don't think WTO rules say anything about what websites or apps a country
should allow but rather the rules are about preventing discrimination between
trading partners. So my understanding is that a country is essentially free to
ban an app because they don't like what they app does but they are not free to
ban an app because they don't like the country it comes from.

