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Chinese government blocks Google.com, Gmail, Google+, Maps, Docs and more

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11–20 of 106 posts

Re: Chinese government blocks Google.com, Gmail, Google+, Maps, Docs and more

#11
If I had to wager a guess, I'd say this is probably due to the 18th Party Congress going on in Beijing right now, and that the block will be lifted sometime in the next week, once the transfer of power is over.

I think we may see some more moderates come to power, so I wouldn't expect this to continue. Whether or not Wang Yang gets a seat in the Standing Committee will be a good bellwether though.

Re: Chinese government blocks Google.com, Gmail, Google+, Maps, Docs and more

#12
post #4

They even took down the country specific access points - including Google.com.HK. Have they ever done that in the past?

This is pretty par for the course, given the once / ten years party congress that is going on.

Every year around June 4 (anniversary of Tiananmen "incident") and typically around Oct 1 (national day) Google gets blocked for a few days.

China is much more adept at censoring the Internet than everyone thought 5-10 years ago.

Re: Chinese government blocks Google.com, Gmail, Google+, Maps, Docs and more

#13
post #8
post #5

If the Chinese want to block a US software company from doing business in China by blocking access to them, then the US should impose tarifs on any software outsourcing to China with stiff penalties for any companies trying to circumvent it.

It's not the generic 'Chinese' who are at fault, but their government. Economic sanctions, like always, will just hurt the people while strengthening the government's power base.

to a point... enough economic pressure will eventually trigger revolution... or can at least make it very unpleasant for the government to continue it's ridiculous position

Re: Chinese government blocks Google.com, Gmail, Google+, Maps, Docs and more

#14
Does anyone know what this means for US websites that use Google Analytics and are visited by people in China? Not that many of my website visitors are in China but I'm wondering if it will also stop the tracking code from working. I'm guessing it would since it won't be able to connect back to GA.

Re: Chinese government blocks Google.com, Gmail, Google+, Maps, Docs and more

#15
post #13
post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not the generic 'Chinese' who are at fault, but their government. Economic sanctions, like always, will just hurt the people while strengthening the government's power base.

to a point... enough economic pressure will eventually trigger revolution... or can at least make it very unpleasant for the government to continue it's ridiculous position

> eventually trigger revolution.

These are the Chinese we're talking about..

Re: Chinese government blocks Google.com, Gmail, Google+, Maps, Docs and more

#17

Does anyone know what this means for US websites that use Google Analytics and are visited by people in China? Not that many of my website visitors are in China but I'm wondering if it will also stop the tracking code from working. I'm guessing it would since it won't be able to connect back to GA.

The same thing that happens when we visit websites with Facebook embedded. It just fails.

Re: Chinese government blocks Google.com, Gmail, Google+, Maps, Docs and more

#18
post #11

If I had to wager a guess, I'd say this is probably due to the 18th Party Congress going on in Beijing right now, and that the block will be lifted sometime in the next week, once the transfer of power is over. I think we may see some more moderates come to power, so I wouldn't expect this to continue. Whether or not Wang Yang gets a seat in the Standing Committee will be a good bellwether though.

Ya, its the party congress hopefully. We'll have to wait until next month for things to get back to normal, and see what the situation is at then. I'm not sure who the moderates are, and whether they even have any control in this; I've heard the dinosaurs that control censorship are fairly embedded and hidden from even the top brass.

Re: Chinese government blocks Google.com, Gmail, Google+, Maps, Docs and more

#19
post #8
post #5

If the Chinese want to block a US software company from doing business in China by blocking access to them, then the US should impose tarifs on any software outsourcing to China with stiff penalties for any companies trying to circumvent it.

It's not the generic 'Chinese' who are at fault, but their government. Economic sanctions, like always, will just hurt the people while strengthening the government's power base.

Its definitely the government, but not officially. Officially there are various technical problems...that are never the ISPs fault. If you get on the phone with them and ask why Facebook is not working, they'll actually say "it must be facebook's problem!". The censorship is not official and all shady, and so going through the WTO doesn't really help.

Re: Chinese government blocks Google.com, Gmail, Google+, Maps, Docs and more

#20
post #15
post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

to a point... enough economic pressure will eventually trigger revolution... or can at least make it very unpleasant for the government to continue it's ridiculous position

> eventually trigger revolution. These are the Chinese we're talking about..

The government is corrupt enough that they might as well could trigger a revolution themselves someday. Interference from us would hardly matter.
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