Since 2010, Google had been blocked in China and has had some brief instances of accessibility. Recently, users have noted that its services had suffered from severe disruption for more than a month.
China's blocking of Google began in early June as part of its commemoration of the 25th anniversary of the infamous Tiananmen Square of 1989 where a large number of student protests had occurred.
It is common knowledge that China places strong censorship and manipulation over the Internet use of its residents. If this is one way that the country could curb signs of dissent or threat to the ruling Communist Party, then it's not surprising if more Internet companies would face the same restriction in the future.
Some of the features that are inaccessible for Google users in China are Google maps, Google search, Google Translate, email, and online advertising. However, a digital technology publication known as Tech in Asia attested to the fact that some of these services can be accessed through normal Internet connections.
John Kerry was in Beijing to conduct a series of talks. Incidentally, one of his topics included cyber-security which is placed as a top priority topic.
Some people from the social media are speculating that Google went up and running only because of the visit. Google's accessibility at that time was too short. This was confirmed by users and the GreatFireWallofChina.org, a monitoring censorship service provider in China.
The "Great Firewall" is a service tool used by the Communist Party in blocking undesirable websites. The tool would sometimes experience a glitch which explains why some Google services are accessible at times.
One member of the group who refused to be identified says "It looks like merely a bug of the Great Firewall. It's blocked again."
At least for those people living outside China, Google is already a recognized site when conducting research or finding just about anything under the sun. In China, users had no choice but to look for alternative sites which are state-approved such as Baidu.
Apart from Google, there are other online services that are experiencing service disruption in China. For several years now, China has been blocking Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube. A few days ago, services such as Kakao talk and Naver which are mobile messaging apps from South Korea also experienced disruption. Even Yahoo's photo-sharing service dubbed as Flickr and Microsoft's cloud storage One Drive are not spared from China's Internet wrath.
