Can they though?

You are assuming that the Chinese 'people' can make a concious decision here - are you sure they can? Can they vote out the people making these decisions? Can they read unbiased news and not be subject to propaganda?

When the 'people' speak and not the 'government' - then you can talk about the people's will.

Not quite the same

You're comparing free speech to child abuse?

As much as I'm no great fan of the USA, and the UK isn't perfect either, but the people there at least have the right to, say, criticise the government. Can you imagine someone like Noam Chomsky being allowed his freedom in China, let alone holding academic positions and publishing books?

... forfeit their membership?

Why do they need to , bearing in mind how much the rest of the world now relies on them as the worlds manufacturer.

If China withdrew from the WTO, who exactly would boycott trade with them? It's a fine idea as long as you don't want computers, TV's, other electronic devices, plasticware, knives and forks, kids toys, tee shirts and jeans... and even a place to send all your plastic waste to be re-used rather than dumped in landfill.

I could go on.

Next time you buy something non-food, pretty much anything, have a look at where it was made. Just think how you would like to wait a year to get non-Chinese production scaled up, and how you would embrace paying three times as much for it. And that's not to mention the billions of dollars that China has invested from it's sovereign wealth fund propping up UK and US companies.

No, China is not afraid of the WTO. We should be afraid of them leveraging their dominant manufacturing position on us. Still, we only have ourselves to blame for letting our manufacturing sector to become so niche.

I don't like the human rights issues either, but if you examine the United Nations Charter, you will find that not even this allows any country to interfere with another sovereign nation (Article 2, Paragraph 7 apparently). Mind you, this appears to be something that the US and UK governments have forgotten over the years.

The other concern I have is why so many people think that the western democratic system is the only one worth merit? It should be quite obvious from Afghanistan and Iraq that it does not fit the whole world's moral and ethical systems. We (in the west) are just being moral snobs. I don't think that the Chinese system is currently fair, but that does not mean that we immediately have to schedule a western style election for China. The Chinese representational system, if it were implemented correctly could work, as long as the people at the top loose their desire to stay in power (hmmmm, probably not going to happen).

Anyway, enough of this Friday Afternoon politics, I need a pint!