Kudos to Hillary Clinton, who on Thursday launched a U.S. State Department campaign to preserve and expand Internet freedom around the world—and hit out at regimes that continue to tighten Web censorship.

Her note that Beijing should "conduct a thorough investigation of the cyber intrusions" does invite the fox to take the keys to the henhouse. But overall, the new Clinton Doctrine is welcome. Her department's work to fund technology development that would help activists thwart their censors, and to fight off attempts in the U.N. to restrict access to information on the Internet, could deliver an important blow against autocrats beyond the Middle Kingdom.