Recently, the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs has even stopped accepting diplomatic protests from the United States regarding human rights issues. According to many accounts, if China were to accede to the World Trade Organization, the United States would be required either to grant Beijing permanent MFN status, or to lose the benefits of WTO agreements with China. As it stands today, China's Most Favored Nation trading status with the United States is reviewed annually. Surrendering that leverage to Beijing would send exactly the wrong message at the wrong time. Sanctions don't work.
Unilateral actions are counterproductive.
And so on. They use the credible and imminent threat of economic sanctions the very same sanctions they say would be counterproductive as a means of promoting political and religious freedom in China. On at least three occasions since 1991, the U.S. Trade Representative has threatened to impose billions of dollars in sanctions to vindicate U.S. intellectual property interests. In each of those cases, when faced with sanctions, the Chinese government changed its behavior. The WTO's Dispute Settlement system relies on these same kinds of sanctions as the primary mechanism to enforce WTO agreements.