China has been busy this month, blocking many important websites, including all of Google’s services. The New York Times reports:
As part of a broad campaign to tighten internal security, the Chinese government has draped a darker shroud over Internet communications in recent weeks, a situation that has made it more difficult for Google and its customers to do business. Chinese exporters have struggled to place Google ads that appeal to overseas buyers. Biotechnology researchers in Beijing had trouble recalibrating a costly microscope this summer because they could not locate the online instructions to do so. And international companies have had difficulty exchanging Gmail messages among far-flung offices and setting up meetings on applications like Google Calendar.
Here are some other news reports on sites now blocked:
- DuckDuckGo, a private search engine, has been blocked since the beginning of September.
- One of our recommended VPN providers, ExpressVPN, was blocked today. However, they’ve created a temporary domain name which works in China — link: ExpressVPN
- On September 18, the BBC and CNN were blocked, due reports of a military-run group of hackers inside a Shanghai compound.
- The Bitcoin form BitcoinTalk was blocked recently, users in China can use the domain https://bitcointa.lk/.
We recommend VPNs to avoid the firewall here.
You can check the status of any site in China, by going to GreatFireWallOfChina.Org
