From the Financial Times:
The US has complained officially to China over its strict new internet censorship rules as tension builds over an issue causing consternation among international technology companies and Chinese internet users.
The development is a rare direct intervention by the US over internet freedom, which has steadily risen in importance as an issue between the two countries in recent years. US technology companies see it as a back-door way of keeping them out of the Chinese market. . .
. . . Silicon Valley began to argue for internet censorship to be treated as a trade issue three years ago after Google and Yahoo were publicly embarrassed over accommodations made with Beijing to be allowed to operate in China.