http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology...ternet-control

How accurate is this report?

There was a slightly more in depth article on the same topic as the NPC was drawing to a close in late October, which I found to be more illuminating than this piece, but both contain the same basic observations.

The upshot of it is that the Chinese know we are using VPNs, but for the most part, they honestly don't care about us or their home grown FB addicts. Furthermore, their army of net nannies can easily cripple any VPN service that they decide to target, though some of these new VPNs that access 1000s of servers simultaneously are a bit of challenge for them.

In the past, I've advised people to steer clear of long term plans because you never know how long your favorite VPN will continue to evade the radar, but honestly, even as 2012 is drawing to a close, the larger VPN companies are still going strong (NPC was admittedly a HUGE hiccup, though), and are doing their best to stay in front of the curve.

If this is the case, why do they still block access to it?

AFICT, they basically see no point on trying to reign in the 小白领 set, many of whom have already studied/traveled abroad. And, let's face it, the next revolt is unlikely to spark up from the office buildings in Lujiazui.

And that's the point of my question. If they see no point in it, why still try by blocking access? (And yes, I realize the futility of trying to find rationality in the government's policies).

Because there still is a VAST population who are not discovered the world outside of China, who have had the ability to visit other parts of the world. Its the masses that the government is trying to block - not the relative few who know that things are not exactly what they hear on the radio or see on the TV.

I am currently living in a provincial level city in China. Most people do not know where Canada is, they have heard of it but have no idea. In fact, most people say, "It's part of Asia right?"

The younger population is aware but it is scary how many people do not know so many basic things we take for granted.

My middle school students in Shenzhen (in 2007) thought that all people from the US had "yellow hair and blue eyes." Perhaps a banality in the China forum, or even amongst travelers to China, but they never know what to say when I ask them about Chinese-Americans. AND then there's the NBA which these days lends its quite non-yellow haired and blue eyed professionals to Chinese basketball teams... further comments about US citizens from my students were much less kind.

Yes, I understand that, and that puts moondog's comment in a different context for me. I guess his point is that the gov't isn't concerned about blocking access to the younger, well-traveled, educated city-folk. But they ARE still terrified about information getting to the masses from sources not sanctioned and censored by the central government.


Reminds me of the time 25 years ago when I was buying eggs in a mom & pop grocery in Taiwan. The owner, an older man, asked me in complete seriousness if we had eggs in America. I assured him that we did, but that they were "this big" [used my hands to indicate the size of ostrich eggs].

My current VPN provider (initially recommended on this board -- Expr**) is currently playing up badly....the usual access routes are blocked, and although there is a tedious workaround, it's nowhere near as good as before.

I can't currently be bothered to go shopping for a new one, since it's barely functional, but may need to do so soon...anyone with a very good recommendation can PM me, will be appreciated.

tb

Mine has been working fine through the recent madness, holding strong (ahem) if you will, no workarounds have been needed, though definitely noticed some slowness.

I work in an MNC, with mostly local staff and a smattering of overseas returnees and expats. All the expats are VPN savvy, only some of the overseas returnees, and pretty much NO local chinese. Heck even though instructions for setting the company proxy server is available on the intranet FAQ, until I showed people what it meant no one had bothered to change their settings.

I decided years ago not to use a VPN connection while in China. This decision has made sites like Baidu, Youku etc. a lot more familiar which I am not too unhappy about. Localization if you wish...

Also, while at it, I hope we do not get too political here in the China travel forum, for obvious reasons. Happy festive season to all!

Fair enough: but I have yet to find a search engine as competent as google. Not to find where to go for a burger, but for work-related information.

And given one of my four email addresses is gmail, that adds an added incentive.

tb

It's more than just using Youku or Baidu as alternatives. My new sources are stuck behind the firewall, and I'm not trading that no matter what.

In the middle of last week several of the access points of the service I use could no longer be connected to. Also even when using the VPN I noticed that some sites that should normally be accessible were blocked. I received a workaround but it's not as convenient as it was before... Thank you GFW... not!

美国的月亮比较圆