China Official Declaration On VPN Blockage
Source: ChinaDaily, www.tipsforchina.com
2017-10-18 China Daily
China's moves to block virtual private network services are for the "healthy development" of the Internet, a top official from the industry watchdog said on Tuesday.
"The rapid development of Internet is forcing the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) to use new ways to maintain cyber security and steady operation," said Wen Ku, director of telecom development at the MIIT.
"The country needs new methods to tackle new problems ... the development of Internet has to be in accordance with Chinese law," Wen added.
Last week, VPN providers Astrill, StrongVPN and Golden Frog all claimed disruptions in their services in the Chinese mainland.
But why Some VPNs are Still working:
According to James, an internet security expert:
" 99% of all blocking is done automatically by algorithms and machine learning. "
"China could block all VPN traffic if they wanted to, but they will never do this. "
"Using a VPN or talking about using a VPN is not illegal in China. Check the VPN in China FAQ page for more information on this."
China's Communist Party Congress is starting on October 18, 2017. VPN services are suffering from failed connections and reduced performance. The servers that are crossed out are not currently working or working poorly. The ones not crossed out are still working well but sometimes you need to retry the connection if it fails the first time.
Will VPNs ever be blocked？
By far it's not likely, but there's no guarantee. Many laws and announcements in China get implemented in a flexible manner. Take for example the social security for foreigners in China, while the national law makes it mandatory for companies to pay the full social welfare package for foreigners working in companies based in China since 2009 , however, Shanghai has its own interpretation where it's not mandatory, otherwise that could affect Shanghai competitiveness domestically and globally, and make Shanghai quite expensive to run businesses with international teams. Several other cities followed Shanghai as well.
Why some VPNs are blocked while some are not? and what about these sudden blackouts?
China culture emphasize the value of 'Modesty', or 低调 in Chinese. In another mean: "keep a low profile". Some VPNs driven by the big market in China went far in their marketing and sales campaign that made it embarrassing to keep them untouched.
According to James, an internet security expert:
Certain providers such as Astrill are sometimes targeted specifically by the GFW. This is likely due to the fact that they advertise their service in Chinese language, market their service to locals in China, and partner with resellers that are enemies of the government (Great Fire dot org for example).
When Astrill gets blocked, they usually blame their customers for talking about their service on Twitter, online forums, etc. This is not the real reason for the blocking. You will also notice that Astrill needs to invent new protocols to keep their VPN working but other VPNs work fine with standard PPTP, L2TP, and OpenVPN.
One Chinese Proverb says: "闭上眼睛、打开眼睛” which means: "One eye closed, one eye opened". This is a very popular business and political principle, means as long as the remaining VPNs didn't cause a harm, the 'closed eye' will be closed, but the 'opened eye' will be always watching. If any harm happened, both eyes will be opened.
Even giants as Google and Apple cannot change the way things are decided in China. China is strong, stronger than ever. Let's appreciate what we already have and thank the "closed eye" for the great convenience allowing many to keep in touch with family members using Whatsapp or Facebook,
If you have any information or questions please leave a comment below.