Mar 10, 2008

The Great Fire Wall Of China

Poneke posts today on the difficulty of reading blogs in China, and suggests that Blogspot sites (such as The Hive) are automatically blocked by China. An expat New Zealander in Beijing suggests using Blogtown instead as this isn't blocked.

We have three comments and a question:
  • We now fear for Blogtown, having drawn it to the attention of the Chinese its days of free access to China are numbered;
  • We were not getting through to China, but having complained about being blocked, we miraculously started being read by a computer in Beijing. Indeed, every time we post on China, Taiwan, or the DPRK, we are within hours being read by that computer. We wonder who operates this computer?
  • We are both a blog and an internet based news service. The difficulty in getting read in China is restricting our potential market. We are therefore looking forward to the FTA that is going to be signed between China and New Zealand between 6-9 April solving this restriction on trade. Readers may be interested in the case that the US and EU have brought against China in the WTO over restrictions on the sale of foreign financial news and information in China. Should the FTA not guarantee us access to the Chinese market, we would be expecting New Zealand to be joining this US, EU action as at least a Third Party.
  • How did Poneke know that we were three quarters of the way through a post on this topic??