- Title: CHINA-INTERNET/VPN China's disruption of VPN services affects locals and expats
- Date: 30th January 2015
- Summary: (SOUNDBITE) (English) 62-YEAR-OLD FILM EDITOR AND ENTREPRENEUR, JOHN KWIATKOWSKI, SAYING: "I understand there were issues with more aggressive policies from China to block it, so now it doesn't work so well, and I complain to them (Astrill) about it, and they just give me the same old story -- they blame China and Apple. So I'm very frustrated with the service now, and I just want it to work. I don't care why it doesn't work, but I just want it to work." 21 YEAR-OLD UNIVERSITY STUDENT AND TRANSLATOR, LEAH LI, WORKING ON COMPUTER LI'S HANDS USING COMPUTER
- Embargoed: 14th February 2015 12:00
- Keywords:
- Location: China
- City:
- Country: China
- Topics: General
- Reuters ID: LVAE13KTJTT348TCZBYAWS0CKFPW
- Aspect Ratio:
- Story Text: EDITORS PLEASE NOTE: THIS EDIT CONTAINS MATERIAL WHICH WAS ORIGINALLY 4:3
Small businesses, expatriates and citizens alike are beginning to feel the effects of China's recent moves to disrupt virtual private network (VPN) services within its borders.
A recent upgrade of the "Great Firewall" of China has seen the disruption of VPNs which allow individuals and companies to access websites and services that are normally blocked in China, including those operated by Google, Facebook and Twitter.
The services affected include popular VPN providers Astrill, StrongVPN and Golden Frog, which are engaged in a technological arms race to one-up China's highly sophisticated Great Firewall internet censorship system.
Almost all foreign and many domestic companies in China use VPNs to conduct business relatively unimpeded by disruptions to web services.
The services that have seen disruptions recently are widely used by individuals, largely affecting mobile devices.
A notice from Astrill this week said that certain VPN protocols are "blocked in almost real-time" in China.
Jim Fields, the managing director of the Beijing office of UK-based video production company Studio Output, said that his office often relies on Astrill's VPN services for file transfer and communications outside of China.
Fields said that the recent disruption of VPN services has significantly affected Studio Output's operations in China, as it has resulted in a dramatic slow-down of file transfers of videos to their clients abroad.
"Given that we work with international teams, the blockage of VPN services often makes things like communication and file transmission very difficult. So, there's obviously a large file transfer problem which is often times working in the creative industry, we have these big video files that need to be transmitted between China and the UK or China and other markets. But beyond that it also creates lots of smaller problems," Fields said.
He explained that communications operations for their Beijing office have also been affected since they often rely on VPN to access websites blocked in China such as Gmail and Google-owned applications.
Wen Ku, Director of the Telecom Development Department of China's Ministry of Industry and Information, said on Tuesday (January 27) during a news conference broadcast live on state television CCTV that the disruption of VPNs was to filter out "bad information" according to Chinese law.
"In China, internet development must follow Chinese laws and regulations. Certain bad information should be managed according to Chinese laws. So in regards, I think that with the development of the internet, as new circumstances arise, there must be new ways to manage them. Thank you," said Wen.
Wen did not define what he meant by "bad information".
Charles Mok, a member of Hong Kong's legislative council and an IT specialist, said that the disruptions will have obvious economic effects.
"One rule of censorship is that it can never be really one hundred percent. All it can do is make it difficult. So I think that's what China is trying to do right now, to makes things more difficult, and it's becoming much more difficult. You know, using a VPN itself is already pretty cumbersome, and a lot of people don't really bother to use them. Now even for those people who that they bother to use these technologies, they are not able to use them. So it's going to be a big impact, particularly for a lot of businesses, and there might be, the down side is that, other than the censorship part of it, the other downside is that there might be more security and privacy-related leakage and problems that may arise," said Mok.
Mok said that legally speaking, the Chinese government can create regulations for its internet based on certain legislation that could allow it to block VPN services.
John Kwiatkowski, a film editor and entrepreneur who frequently travels to China on business, said that blockage of Astrill's service on his iPad has been the source of frequent frustration.
"I understand there were issues with more aggressive policies from China to block it, so now it doesn't work so well, and I complain to them (Astrill) about it, and they just give me the same old story -- they blame China and Apple. So I'm very frustrated with the service now, and I just want it to work. I don't care why it doesn't work, but I just want it to work," said Kwiatkowski.
Leah Li, a 21-year-old university student who often uses VPN to access foreign websites for research and translation, also expressed frustration.
"I use VPN to search on Google Engine, and also to use Gmail, so if my VPN doesn't work, then I can't get enough information to do the translation, and also if it's blocked then it usually takes five or six more times (what it usually takes) to get enough information I want," said Li.
A cyber-security expert at a government-backed Chinese think-tank told the Global Times that China's Great Firewall "has been upgraded for cyberspace sovereignty", in a rare acknowledgement in state-run media of the country's efforts to block technical workarounds to the firewall.
Attacks and blocks on foreign internet services have become increasingly common in China. Censors maintain a tight grip on what can and cannot be published online to eliminate anything seen as a threat to the ruling Communist Party.
Critics say China has stepped up its disruption of foreign online services like Google over the past year to create an internet cut off from the rest of the world. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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