China Blocks Virtually All Of Google’S Web Services As 18Th Party Cong

[Nikkar Narayana]

According to [url="http://www.businessweek.com/news/2012-11-09/google-sees-china-traffic-drop-web-monitor-cites-block"]multiple[/url] [url="http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/11/09/net-us-google-china-idUSBRE8A81FU20121109"]reports[/url], China recently started blocking numerous Google services, including Gmail, Google Maps and others that usually pass through the country’s so-called Great Firewall. Google’s [url="http://www.google.com/transparencyreport/traffic/"]Transparency Report[/url] shows a significant drop in traffic from China that started around 12:30am GMT last night. According to a statement from Google, the company has checked and “there’s nothing wrong on our end.”
It’s common for China to sporadically block some of Google’s services. According to watchdog site Greatfire.org, today’s disruption is affecting more users than ever, as the Firewall now also stops traffic to Gmail, a move that is relatively unusual.

This time around, most observers assume that the reason for the disruption is the Chinese Communist Party’s 18th Party Congress, which began on November 8.
Looking at the Transparency Report, it looks like traffic is currently at normal levels compared to other days, but it still [url="http://www.greatfirewallofchina.org/index.php?siteurl=gmail.com"]looks[/url] as if most Google services continue to be unreachable from China. For now, it’s unclear whether this is a temporary move, or if the Great Firewall will continue to block access to Google’s web services once the Party Congress is over.