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Comment by rubenbe | Hacker News Reader

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rubenbe

This is getting really strict.

I went to China around 2012:

* Facebook was already blocked

* Google and wikipedia magically stopped working when you searched for "tiananmen"

* Gmail worked fine

I returned in early 2017, oh god what a change:

* Don't even think about Facebook

* Ironically Facebook messenger worked until my session expired

* No gmail, google at all (don't remember about Wikipedia)

* Whatsapp worked fine

And now it is even getting worse....

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I'm curious, what is the difference between "Facebook was already blocked" and "Don't even think about Facebook", other than 5 years?

There is no real difference, I kinda wanted to stress that no site ever gets unblocked (AFAIK).

CNN was blocked in 2002 (Tiananmen square was still fresh in people's minds) and isn't blocked today (CNN is a shadow of its former self, not very threatening). Ironically, because CNN was blocked, I started reading New York Times, which today IS blocked.

VPNs probably. They've started to crack down on those lately, too.

Also, a random tweet I saw today apparently with a recording of China's CCTV surveillance system:

https://twitter.com/0XDEDBEEF/status/912026226658652160

No wonder China wants to be #1 in "artificial intelligence". Surveillance and censorship are likely the primary motivators for that.

"One of the prominent Chinese VCs, Neil Shen from Sequoia China, was on the Economist's podcast recently talking about AI in China. When the host asked Shen about the Chinese state's use of AI in monitoring the citizens of China, Shen clammed up. It is an amazing bit of audio (starts around minute 8.)

https://www.acast.com/theeconomistasks/theeconomistasks-howd... "

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15017622

Given the political environment he faces at home, it was nearly a bit unfair to put him on the spot like that. The silence speaks volumes, though. Most meaningful silence I've heard (?) in a while.

Wow. This was fascinating, and terrifying both. Thank you for that link. To anyone else, I recommend listening to the whole 16 minutes actually - makes Mr. Shen's silence that much more stark.

Wow. That is some Person of Interest-level business right there.

At what level does china block internet access? Technology wise? It sounds impressive to be honest (in a scary way).

I wonder if the US has similar tech that is ready to be deployed at will.

I can't read chinese: What kind of data do they have there?

labels on moving objects: vehicle, adult, child, bike, T-shirt, etc.

Google didn't work for me at all in 2011. The VPN I used worked, but then stopped after 2015 ish. I now use free roaming on e.g. t mobile / Google fi / etc which gets around all blocks.

L2TP tunneling works when you use an ip address for the vpn server.

Hmm maybe that'll be worth getting a static IP at home for my next trip, thanks.

It occasionally would drop, but I could simply reconnect.

Why's that? Are you using some commercial VPN service where they're blocking the DNS?

How well does Android work in general if all google services are blocked? I know Android doesn't technically require google, but a lot of the features & stuff are entangled, like backup & restore, contact sync, etc.

You cannot reach the Play Store at all. And your phone always complains about "limited network access", because it cannot ping the google predefined URL.

Barely.... Chinese android phones install a homegrown version of the play store as almost the entire gplay services framework doesn't work.

That's easy. China has a lot of third-party stores, including stores of pirated apps. Some phones even come built-in with some of those stores.

As for sync, the Chinese companies selling there have their own cloud services and whatnot. This isn't an issue at all.

Speculation: the #1 mobile OS in the #1 mobile market works fine, having been tuned by the people who made it for just that reason.

It seems strict but maybe it's sensible from a security standpoint. Why should a foreign country like China allow foreign owned mass-surveillance systems like Google and Facebook spy on their citizens?

I mean even countries in the EU are taking Facebook to court over unauthorised online tracking of citizens [1]. The only difference with China is they have the power to do something about it, which is skip the legislative overhead and get straight to the business of blocking access.

I disagree with censorship of this kind; However, I wonder how the US would like it if the shoe was on the other foot?

[1] https://www.darkreading.com/vulnerabilities---threats/spain-...

> I disagree with censorship of this kind; However, I wonder how the US would like it if the shoe was on the other foot?

Here's a list of websites blocked in China: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Websites_blocked_in_mainland_C...

They block Wikipedia. Hardly a mass-surveillance system. The Chinese government is neanderthal.

Kind of off-topic, but I wonder what the reasoning behind blocking some sites like Sony Japan was.

No one is forcing them to use Google or Facebook. I sure as hell wouldn't want the US blocking Baidu or whatever. Let me decide.

I don't get your argument really, nor am I trying to say I support what the Chinese government are doing.

Given what we now know about how these companies operate track and consolidate information about users and collaborate with the US Government [1] why would a rival super power trust these companies to operate within their borders?

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PRISM_%28surveillance_program%...

Some WeChat groups relating to cryptocurrency are moving to Telegram. I wonder how that'll last.

I have a friend who's been in China for the last year. Been talking with him on Facebook Messenger the whole time...

>* Google and wikipedia magically stopped working when you searched for "tiananmen"

Hmm I find this hard to believe because the massacre is known as the June Fourth Incident. "tiananmen" is the location, and blocking that would seem a bit strange for people trying to find directions, etc.

It might be based more on the results that those sites return than the query itself. It is just a still existing square. But if you search "Tiananmen" in English, most results will definitely be the sort of thing China doesn't want it's citizens to look at.

It’s almost as if they block the massacre in multiple languages

Tiananmen Square is what the massacre is referred to as in the United States

If you search for Tiananmen in Google, the first result is 6/4. Most westerners associate Tiananmen with the event more than the place.

Now if you search for Taylor Swift's most recent album, TS 1989, well, that's kind of blocked also. Not sure why :)

Wow that's hilarious

I'd expect them to block "tiananmen", the search of those exact Latin characters.

You're looking for the wrong thing. Its the May 35th Incident now comrade ;p

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