I asked some colleagues in the office today why this is happening, and they told me that I should already know the answer. Indeed, it seems quite obvious:

1) Big Brother doesn't like us being able to communicate with each other in any means that it can't easily snoop upon
2) He also wants to protect Chinese companies... like youku and tudou at the expense of youtube

So, VPN it is, I guess (I'm kind of hooked on google).