Has anyone with a startup that wanted China as a potential growth opportunity ever try and address this problem? The only reasonable solution I can think of, is having family in high places lobby for you. Thoughts?
One solution is to host your stuff in Hong Kong (which is what Google did). It's fast for both foreign and Chinese mainland visitors, it's not under the juridiction of the censorship bureau, and there's a more mature legal system in place.
AFAIK, every western company that does business in China and every Chinese company that does businesses overseas has a presence in Hong Kong.