The introduction of the Internet to China in the late 1990s was hailed as a harbinger of democracy and brought hope of greater freedom of information within the country. Today, however, the Chinese government continues to restrict access to the World Wide Web. Censors still monitor and silence “subversive” thought....

An underlying assumption of U.S. economic engagement with China is that the market forces unleashed by international trade and investment will necessarily spur economic and political change in Chinese society. To what extent has this assumption been borne out by more than two decades of booming economic ties between the...