Jing Yuechen, the founder of an Internet start-up here in the Chinese capital, has no interest in overthrowing the Communist Party. But these days she finds herself cursing the nation’s smothering cyberpolice as she tries — and fails — to browse photo-sharing websites like Flickr and struggles to stay in touch with the Facebook friends she has made during trips to France, India and Singapore.Gmail has become almost impossible to use here, and in recent weeks the authorities have gummed up Astrill, the software Ms. Jing and countless others depended on to circumvent the Internet restrictions that Western security analysts refer to as the Great Firewall.
www.nytimes.com/2015/01/30/world/asia/china-clamps-down-still-harder-on-internet-access.htmlAlso see:Is this North Korea? Chinese netizens squirm as party tightens grip on Internet.
Google has been steadily strangled, and Gmail finally blocked more effectively than ever. Instagram and Flickr recently went black, while Microsoft Outlook was hacked. In the past few days, virtual private network (VPN) services, the tools that many people use here to evade online censorship, came under renewed attack.Brick by brick, China is building its Great Firewall steadily higher, experts say. It infuriates netizens, exasperates foreign business executives, and appears to contradict China’s pretensions to be a global superpower — and its celebrated opening to the outside world.
www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/is-this-north-korea-chinese-netizens-squirm-as-party-tightens-grip-on-internet/2015/01/28/79cfc809-21ea-4437-9d4b-5ece2cfc75f6_story.html