5 ms·

I've been living in China, and I can definitely feel a shift here. These days, as an English-speaker in China it's almost impossible to get anything done online

I've been living in China, and I can definitely feel a shift here. These days, as an English-speaker in China it's almost impossible to get anything done online without VPN. Google, for most practical purposes, is blocked. Using other search engines, a large percentage of sites won't load when you click on them. Considering the scale and importance of China's economy, the Chinese gov. is moving in an ominous direction.

Kaihuang724 12y ago
My family has done business in China pretty much my whole life, and my take on it is that the Chinese gov. is more or less a bloated system. As the economy grows, greater access is definitely needed and I think top gov. officials realize this, but really nothing can be done in a timely fashion there because of how their politics work.
- iliketosleep 12y ago
  If they realize it, then why is access becoming MORE restricted than ever before? Ever since Chairman Xi came into power, all I can see is more restrictions and tightening of gov. policy.
  - trevelyan 12y ago
    Everyone in the government/military uses a VPN. Seriously. The controls aren't for the government.
  - est 12y ago
    > If they realize it, then why is access becoming MORE restricted than ever before? Believe it or not, network filtering is a huge business in China, especially selling products to gov.
  - Kaihuang724 12y ago
    As the comments before me mentioned, the sad reality is corruption is rampant right now. When everyone is trying to get a piece of the pie, it'll only stop once the pie runs out.
dangrover 12y ago
I'm also in China and rely heavily on VPNs. Some points on that: Sometimes I use a VPN not because I'm trying to get to a banned site, but because of general flakiness when using unblocked sites they'd have no reason to screw with. Seems to be some combination of innocuous reasons (CDN/peering issues, bad routers, unusual race conditions in client-side code caused by my weird network) and deliberate throttling. Under VPN, these issues go away. It seems many people I know (even non non-expats) use VPNs and have accounts on Facebook, Instagram, etc. However, it's a tad inconvenient. Even though I have a VPN one click away, often times I'll opt for a Chinese site/tool to save hassle. Exactly the intended result of these policies!
travis0 12y ago
Do the VPNs tend to work? It seems like they'd be trying as hard as they can to block VPNs; in fact the article mentions that they've been coming under attack.
westiseast 12y ago
Ditto - it used to be up-and-down and now it's just down. I still refuse to use Baidu search because its results are awful and irrelevant, but sometimes....

Kaihuang724 12y ago

My family has done business in China pretty much my whole life, and my take on it is that the Chinese gov. is more or less a bloated system. As the economy grows, greater access is definitely needed and I think top gov. officials realize this, but really nothing can be done in a timely fashion there because of how their politics work.

iliketosleep 12y ago
If they realize it, then why is access becoming MORE restricted than ever before? Ever since Chairman Xi came into power, all I can see is more restrictions and tightening of gov. policy.
- trevelyan 12y ago
  Everyone in the government/military uses a VPN. Seriously. The controls aren't for the government.
- est 12y ago
  > If they realize it, then why is access becoming MORE restricted than ever before? Believe it or not, network filtering is a huge business in China, especially selling products to gov.
- Kaihuang724 12y ago
  As the comments before me mentioned, the sad reality is corruption is rampant right now. When everyone is trying to get a piece of the pie, it'll only stop once the pie runs out.

dangrover 12y ago

I'm also in China and rely heavily on VPNs. Some points on that: Sometimes I use a VPN not because I'm trying to get to a banned site, but because of general flakiness when using unblocked sites they'd have no reason to screw with. Seems to be some combination of innocuous reasons (CDN/peering issues, bad routers, unusual race conditions in client-side code caused by my weird network) and deliberate throttling. Under VPN, these issues go away. It seems many people I know (even non non-expats) use VPNs and have accounts on Facebook, Instagram, etc. However, it's a tad inconvenient. Even though I have a VPN one click away, often times I'll opt for a Chinese site/tool to save hassle. Exactly the intended result of these policies!

travis0 12y ago

Do the VPNs tend to work? It seems like they'd be trying as hard as they can to block VPNs; in fact the article mentions that they've been coming under attack.

westiseast 12y ago

Ditto - it used to be up-and-down and now it's just down. I still refuse to use Baidu search because its results are awful and irrelevant, but sometimes....