Is the censor winning in China?

When I came to China for a visit, I routinely signed up for a VPN. Using a tool to circumvent China´s internet censorship seemed the most obvious thing to do. But here in Shanghai I discovered that using a VPN is not longer a standard procedure. It never was for Chinese users, but also friends and business people seem to live without one.
So that raises the question, who is winning the information war in China. When I ask the people without VPN why they accept the censorship in China, while it is easy to circumvent, they tell me they are not missing anything.
It sounds bit like the debate on social media. You get the same answer from people who are not using social media (yes, they too exist): they are not missing Twitter, Facebook or Google+. They are perfectly happy without internet tools others cannot survive without.
LinkedIn has boomed in China, partly they are for unknown reasons not blocked: many non-VPN users have the illusion they can surf freely online, because they have LinkedIn as a social network.
I have been trying to find out what number of foreign business people could survive without VPN in China, but even asking the question online does not make since. They are also not reading this weblog, since Blogger is also blocked.
It looks that, compared to the early days of the internet, censorship has become so subtle, people have a life online without using the websites and services that are blocked by the officials filters.
Possibly today´s news the Chinese editions of Reuters and the Wall Street Journal are no longer blocked, fits into that subtle censorship message. As long as enough information is seeping through the filters, people do not seem to bother. And they do no realize what they are missing.

Related articles

• China to Foreign Media: Get in Line or Get Out
• The illegal VPN's - China Weekly Hangout
• China's unique social media landscape - Sam Flemming
• Google chairman suggests censorship of Internet will eventually come to an end
• China's Great Firewall Won't Be Touched by Beijing's New Reforms
• China Doubles Down on Web Censorship

The internet nightmare for businesses - Shaun Rein

Shaun Rein

The quality of the internet in China has become so bad over the past months, it is jeopardizing business operations because of the governmental filters, tells business analyst Shaun Rein in the Wall Street Journal. Pulling out of China is no option, but business might scale down. 

The Wall Street Journal:

Discontent has risen in recent months as Chinese authorities appear to have ratcheted up their censorship efforts amid a once-a-decade change of top government leaders. "It is an absolute nightmare," said Shaun Rein, whose consulting firm, China Market Research Group, employs about 20 analysts in the country. 

Mr. Rein, who has been doing business from China for 13 of the past 16 years, uses Google's small-business services to store and share documents and for internal communications. 

But increasingly unreliable connections to Google in recent months have hindered downloads and sharply reduced the effectiveness of instant-messaging service Google Chat, he said. Unstable connections to Google's Gmail service have forced Mr. Rein to set up a system that forwards his email to multiple services to ensure its delivery. 

Google has said it hasn't found any problems with its systems. 

"The real question is whether the next administration is going to continue to roll back Internet availability to foreign firms," Mr. Rein said. He said companies are unlikely to pull out of China in any case, but they likely will think twice about moves like shifting their regional headquarters to Beijing from places like Singapore and Hong Kong. "They will still invest in China," he said. "It just depends on what scale." 

Stepped-up censorship efforts in recent months include a crackdown on so-called virtual private networks, or VPNs. While companies use commercial VPN services routinely for secure data, foreigners, China's elite and other tech-savvy users can use personal VPNs to leap the Great Firewall to use services like Facebook.

More in the Wall Street Journal.

Shaun Rein is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch or fill in our speakers' request form.

At the China Weekly Hangout we discussed the problems foreign business people have in using their VPN''s. Present are Sam Xu, John R. Otto, Gabriel Rueck and Fons Tuinstra; are the recent hiccups just tests? Has China a kill button for the internet and will it use it? Or will there be a two-class internet, one for corporate users, and one for home users?

Related articles

• Apple is the new Blackberry in China - Shaun Rein (chinaspeakersbureau.info)
• Amazon: hardware sells in China, not content - Shaun Rein (chinaspeakersbureau.info)
• Chinese brands going global - Shaun Rein (chinaspeakersbureau.info)
• The different consumer demographics - Shaun Rein (chinaspeakersbureau.info)
• Trust crisis hits KFC's sales - Shaun Rein (chinaherald.net)

The illegal VPN's - China Weekly Hangout

Sulov vpn (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The Global Times, a state-run English language paper, confirmed on Friday morning what some already had feared for a few days: using VPN's in China will be illegal and the country's internet filter systems seem to have started to block some of the major players: Witopia, Astrill and StrongVPN.
If successful - and we would add the 'if' is large for many reasons - China's way of censoring the internet has entered a new phase. While most Chinese internet users are happy to be limited to China's intranet, international businesses, diplomats, scientist, journalists and many other rely on the uncensored internet via VPN's.
We were planning to scale down the number of China Weekly Hangouts until after the different holidays, this seems to be a reason to try and get the hangout still in place on Thursday 20 December, 10pm Beijing Time, 3pm CET and 9pm EST. Again, we might not be able to deliver on Thursday, because of travel and other pending arrangements, but we will do out best.
We will try to look at both the technical and political side of a possible ban on VPN's.
You can register here, to join the discussion. We are looking for a few panelists who can tell from the ground in China what is happening to their VPN; and we want to make an assessment of what this might really mean. Feel free to invite yourself, as we have limited time for lining up people ourselves.

A few initial thoughts on the possible ban of VPN's in China.
1. A few people mentioned an update of the censor systems, causing them problems. There has always been a cat-and-mouse game between the larger VPN firms and the murky departments working on the censorship  systems. China's censors have been a huge nuisance, but have never been able to really block access to the internet outside China.
2. There is no sign of a new law focusing on VPN's; there was always a formal requirement to register VPN firm with the authorities, but since most VPN firm have no presence in China, that seems an empty rule.
3. There is an effort by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT), here explained by Tech in Asia,, to register all apps in China (and possibly other software used on your computer). While developers are getting nervous, we must remind everybody that it is common practice in China for this ministry to issue regulations that have no relations to reality. Still, not something that should be ignored.
4. Many things are illegal in China: corruption, prostitution, unlicensed satellite dishes, to mention a few. That does not mean they do not exist anymore.
If we manage to get this running, the hangout can be viewed here.

The China Weekly Hangout on 15 November look at the global ambitions of China's internet companies, with Steve Millward of Tech in Asia.

Why a blanket ban of Google will not happen

Internet Access (Photo credit: whurleyvision)

China's leadership is gathering in Beijing for the meeting of the Communist Party and that typically means internet censorship is turned a notch higher. Filters work at full speed, and internet speed is even lower than normal. It is not only heavy filtering; in my time in Shanghai during high-profile gatherings, internet speed for visiting delegations, including journalists, had to be guaranteed, often at the expense of residents and regular companies, who suffered from lower capacity. That might still be the case for the poor citizens of Beijing.

In this sensitive climate, where everybody is a bit itchy, you find a fertile ground for hoaxes. Last week the first hoax was that 'somebody' had been messing around with the twitter accounts of foreign correspondents in China. Journalists discovered they had to reset their pass words after getting a warning from Twitter suggestion possible malicious use of their accounts. In this case it proved to be a problem of Twitter itself, who had mistakenly reset the pass words of 20 million accounts worldwide. Foreign correspondents in China gave their own twist to the event, and it took a few hours to discovered they shared a problem with millions elsewhere in the world.

Second hype was the supposed blanket ban on Google, initially reported by Greatfire.org. They actually suggested China was heading for a full closure of the internet, not only limted to Google:

Many VPNs and other circumvention tools have been working poorly or not at all in the last few days. The free iPhone app OpenDoor is still working, though it has also suffered glitches recently. Another method of accessing Google Search is to use one of their other country versions such as http://www.google.co.uk https://www.google.co.uk orhttp://www.google.ca https://www.google.ca. These may also be blocked of course.

Many media took the story for granted and copy-pasted the story. (At the bottom you find a nice selection of media reports on this issue.)

I was suspicious from the start. I got emails and even had a Google Hangouts without any problems. Nobody from my contacts in China reported they were having other problems in stead of a slow internet connection. Of course, in China you regularly have problems with your internet, but nothing suggested a blanket ban of Google, VPN's or a combination of both.
A day later Greatfire.org reported the Google blocked was over, and offered a few explanations for the hype they caused. One option they did not mention: there might have been no blockade at all. If there has been a blockade, it was at least not noticed by many. At their website, Greatfire speculates a bit on the reasons for the blockade nobody else noticed.
There are good reasons, why such a blockade would never last very long. During my time in China I learned that Google, VPN's and proxies were not only needed for the foreign community. Large sections of the Chinese government depends on those tools, so they can monitor what is going on. Some services are blocked, like Twitter and YouTube, since China is offering domestic services that work of better for Chinese users. But a blanket ban of crucial services? That would be big news if it would be true.
Also Chinese journalists would at their first working day get a VPN (in my days actually developed by the Falun Gong), because they needed access to blocked websites too. With that experience as background, I tend to find every story about a blanket ban on China's internet highly suspicious.

While it is certain, filtering of the internet is in full swing during tense times, few people on the ground in China supported the claim of a blanket ban. So, why would a rumor like this be launched? I have a suspicious nature and would assume here an NGO is looking for funding, and might be a bit less critical just to get some headlines?
You think my theory is too far fetched? If I find enough participants we will hold on short notice a (Yes, Google) Hangout where people can share their experiences from China. If it works out, the YouTube video will appear here, at my profile in Google+. If you want to participate, or host the video at your site, drop me a line. Let me also know what time works best for you.

Related articles

• Google blocked in China by censors, unclear how long it will last
• Web monitor: China takes extraordinary step of blocking Google
• Google Search Blocked in China; Likely Over Party Congress
• Google blocked in China?
• All Google Services Blocked in China!?
• Chinese government blocks Google.com, Gmail, Google+, Maps, Docs, Analytics, Drive, more