It's a good question. I use skype international version, downloaded while outside of China and which I keep resident on my hard drive so I avoid the skype website (which in China will redirect to the Tom. version). So far, so good. But I would not be surprised if a full clampdown is a-coming. When I return to Beijing shortly, I'm going to try running it over VPN to gauge viability of connection.

Seriously, if you live or visit China enough and need reliable, unfettered access to the internet, things have gotten to the point where you simply must have access to a secure VPN and have any necessary software loaded onto your computer or portable memory device. If signing up for a private VPN service, try to pick one that is obscure enough to be "under the radar" of the Chinese Net Nannies and that has reasonable speed.

And I have also heard a lot of gmail problems lately from various people, so clearly something is afoot.