'Clouding' the Issue - the Great Firewall

[Randy W]

An interesting update on the generation lost behind the Great Firewall (it's early in the month, so hopefully you still have a free article(s) left on the NY Times)

 

A Generation Grows Up in China Without Google, Facebook or Twitter

 

“Our findings suggest that censorship in China is effective not only because the regime makes it difficult to access sensitive information, but also because it fosters an environment in which citizens do not demand such information in the first place,” the scholars wrote.

 

. . .

 

The attitude is a departure even from those born in China in the 1980s. When that generation was coming of age a decade or so ago, some were rebels. One of the most famous was Han Han, a blogger who questioned the Chinese political system and traditional values. He sold millions of copies of books and has more than 40 million followers on Weibo, the Chinese equivalent of Twitter.

Now there are no Chinese like Mr. Han who are in their teens or 20s. Even Mr. Han, now 35, is no longer his former self. He mainly posts about his businesses on Weibo, which include making films and racecars.

 

[Randy W]

Google's already there! Sounds like they're just collecting data on which sites are actually blocked, though - which doesn't sound like they're there at ALL formally. From Inkstone

 

What is 265.com, Google’s little-known China offshoot?

 

The little-known directory, which Google bought a decade ago, is now helping the company develop a censored version of its search engine that blocks users from seeing results deemed harmful by Beijing.

According to The Intercept, Google has been recording what Chinese users are searching on 265.com before redirecting them to Baidu, China’s dominant search engine.

Google engineers then use the keywords to develop a list of thousands of websites that are banned by China’s Great Firewall.

265.com is one of the web portals popular in the pre-social media era, providing users with handy links to all kinds of travel, shopping and entertainment sites.

The site was founded in 2003 by Chinese tech entrepreneur Cai Wensheng. In a 2007 interview with Chinese magazine Contemporary Manager, Cai said the portal was targeted at older Chinese who just joined the internet, many of whom did not know how to type.

Cai said the site recorded more than five million daily visits.

Later that year, Cai sold the website to Google for an undisclosed amount.

 

[Randy W]

in the SCMP

 

Taiwan grateful to United Airlines for imaginative website solution to ‘one China’ rule

Currency and destination names changed on carrier’s site in ‘flexible workaround’

 

 

Ticket bookers can now see “New Taiwan Dollar”, “Chinese Yuan” and “Hong Kong Dollar” listed among destination names such as “Australia”, “India” and “Japan” when looking for currency and payment options on the company’s official website.

The third-largest US airline removed Taiwan, China and Hong Kong as country or region names last month, ahead of a deadline imposed by the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC).

 

 

[Randy W]

Can't even talk about them as "markets", even though they have their own currencies, import regulations, and distribution networks

 

from the SCMP -

 

‘Why are Taiwan and Hong Kong separate from China?’: Chinese raise ruckus over Apple’s iPhone presentation

Internet users, state-run tabloid outraged by wording of slide used in publicity event, as others call for Chinese people to stop being so sensitive

 

 

 

When speaking about the new iPhone XS, Phil Schiller, Apple’s senior vice-president of worldwide marketing, said that shipping would begin on September 21 to “all of these markets”, as a slide projected behind him showed the flags and names of 30 places around the world.

Included on the list were China, Hong Kong and Taiwan.

That was too much for internet user Subao Brother, who took to Weibo, China’s version of Twitter, on Thursday to vent his spleen.

“Starting with me, let’s boycott Apple,” he wrote. “To have Hong Kong and Taiwan listed as countries without any indication of them being part of China. We cannot stand for this!”

Neither the slide used in the presentation nor Schiller referred to the markets as countries.

. . .

In an article published on WeChat, China’s most popular messaging platform, state-run tabloid Global Times accused Apple of double standards.

“If Apple has the sense to put US before Virgin Islands to differentiate it from British Virgin Islands, why can’t it put China before Hong Kong and Taiwan to make more people aware of the fact recognised by the United Nations and most countries in the world?” it said.

The final name on Schiller’s list of markets was “US Virgin Islands”. The British Virgin Islands were not on it.

 

[Randy W]

 

from the SCMP

 

Seems reasonable, as long as it's actually a SEPARATE (from REAL Google) search engine. Perhaps Zuckerberg could screw his head on right and do something similar, although it might be more difficult for him - I don't see a need for a separate Chinese Facebook.

 

Google could give Baidu a serious run for its money in China

Speculation on the US internet giant’s return has centred on its reported development of mobile search and news aggregation apps designed to meet China’s strict censorship laws

 

 

US-based Google has been developing a censored mobile search app that would comply with Chinese regulations, though whether that would be rolled out still depends on approval from the government, a person familiar with the plans told the South China Morning Post. The plan for a search app was first reported by The Intercept, while The Information reported Google also had plans for a news-aggregation app for China.

 

“Baidu could lose significant search traffic and sales share if Google returns to China in six to nine months,” wrote Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Ling Vey-sern in a research note.

Google had some 14 per cent of China’s search traffic and 33 per cent revenue share before the company’s exit from the market in 2010, according to the note. Baidu’s search engine had 79 per cent of traffic and 63 per cent of search-related sales at that time.

 

 

 

 

Apparently getting serious - from the SCMP

 

Google CEO says China search engine would serve 99 per cent of queries, takes a swipe at Baidu

Project Dragonfly is reported to be the code name for Google’s secret mission to develop a censored search app specifically for China

 

Ben Gomes, Google’s search engine chief, told employees that China was “arguably the most interesting market in the world today” and that Google needed to be there, according to a leaked internal email published earlier this month by The Intercept.

“It’s not just a one-way street. China will teach us things that we don’t know,” Gomes said. “We have built a set of hacks and we have kept them. If there is a way to sort of freeze some of it, so it can be brought off the shelf and quickly deployed while we are dripping it all out, and changing it, we should take the long-term view.”

 

 

 

Although it's still unclear how much cooperation they're getting from China

[Randy W]

VPN disaster all day today, except for about 10 minutes worth of connect time - both computer and phone data connections. Upgrading to Version 6.8.0 seems to have helped - oops, spoke too soon, although I DID get another 5 mins. on Facebook

We have good connectivity to Chinese and US sites that are not blocked.

First time it's EVER been this bad - I hope it's not part of the trade war

October 29, 2018:
We’re aware of the VPN connectivity issues for some users in China. Our engineers are working to address these blocks promptly and get you connected again.

However, we do not have an ETA on the fix at this time. We request you to check this page - https://www.express-vpn-links.com/support/troubleshooting/china-status. We will update this page when the issue has been resolved.

If you are not facing a connectivity issue from China and are writing to us about another topic, please reply to this email so that we can re-open your ticket correspondence for our team to address.

We’re sorry for any inconvenience.

Best Regards,

The ExpressVPN Support Team

Edited October 29, 2018 by Randy W (see edit history)

[Randy W]

Updates as of 2018-10-29 11:20pm GMT+8

If you’re having trouble using ExpressVPN, please try the following:

1. Make sure you’re using these specific versions of the ExpressVPN apps. This might involve needing to downgrade app versions.

Make sure your ExpressVPN app is set to use the automatic protocol.

• Windows: please use v6.7.3

 

I'm now becoming convinced that this is an ExpressVPN problem, and NOT a Great Firewall issue - the network connections on Windows are entirely different from what they used to be

[Randy W]

Now it's V6.8.1

 

 

[updated: 05:30 GMT / 13:30 GMT+8, October 30, 2018]Please see updated guidance below on staying connected. Our engineers are continuing to address blocks in China and will update this page with new information. We’re sorry for any inconvenience.

 

• Windows: Please upgrade to v6.8.1

 

[wawster]

You've got to be grinding your teeth over this one!

[Allon]

 

Updates as of 2018-10-29 11:20pm GMT+8

If you’re having trouble using ExpressVPN, please try the following:

1. Make sure you’re using these specific versions of the ExpressVPN apps. This might involve needing to downgrade app versions.

Make sure your ExpressVPN app is set to use the automatic protocol.

• Windows: please use v6.7.3

 

I'm now becoming convinced that this is an ExpressVPN problem, and NOT a Great Firewall issue - the network connections on Windows are entirely different from what they used to be

 

 

 

I have ExpressVPN and am shopping around before the license expires next month. It seems to be easier to use than some others but they cannot quite get connections to stay if you leave it for even 5 or 10 minutes. It drops the connection no matter what protocol you use, auto or otherwise. There are other times when it simply hangs up and shows the Disconnecting.... message. Had to reboot. Calling service may work. On this issue, they haven't a clue.

 

Some of the earlier problems I had went away with the upgrades but I am still pissed about the connection issue. Here is a link if you haven't gone fishing for another one. https://www.comparitech.com/vpn/reviews/

 

Check out PrivateVPN. I am thinking of that one, although some are pretty good. Slow download speed is a problem for a lot of them. Not this one. And it works in China with some tweaking.

[Randy W]

 

 

Updates as of 2018-10-29 11:20pm GMT+8

If you’re having trouble using ExpressVPN, please try the following:

1. Make sure you’re using these specific versions of the ExpressVPN apps. This might involve needing to downgrade app versions.

Make sure your ExpressVPN app is set to use the automatic protocol.

• Windows: please use v6.7.3

 

I'm now becoming convinced that this is an ExpressVPN problem, and NOT a Great Firewall issue - the network connections on Windows are entirely different from what they used to be

 

 

 

I have ExpressVPN and am shopping around before the license expires next month. It seems to be easier to use than some others but they cannot quite get connections to stay if you leave it for even 5 or 10 minutes. It drops the connection no matter what protocol you use, auto or otherwise. There are other times when it simply hangs up and shows the Disconnecting.... message. Had to reboot. Calling service may work. On this issue, they haven't a clue.

 

Some of the earlier problems I had went away with the upgrades but I am still pissed about the connection issue. Here is a link if you haven't gone fishing for another one. https://www.comparitech.com/vpn/reviews/

 

Check out PrivateVPN. I am thinking of that one, although some are pretty good. Slow download speed is a problem for a lot of them. Not this one. And it works in China with some tweaking.

 

 

It seems to me that a TCP connection is preferable, since it's not always on by default. But I use Auto as long as it's working (which it is now). It seems to be they have the best research into what works in China. But, yes, they screwed up big time yesterday, in a way that makes me think THEY may be responsible for some of the disconnects I put up with. My phone works fairly seemlessly, however.

 

The three factors are your ISP and connection, the Great Firewall, and the VPN. It can be difficult to determine which causes a particular outage, especially since throughput here sometimes drops to Zero.

 

I didn't like what I read in the reviews about PrivateVPN, so I signed up for NordVPN as a backup. They were rated ABOVE ExpressVPN in a couple of reviews. So far, I've only been able to connect twice, but was unable to connect to any site (DNS lookup failed). I'll have to see if I can't find a server that works (they take a LONG time to give a 'Connection failed').Their price right now is at a 70% discount - I think it's $107 for three years, so I'll have it around to play with for a while, unless I decide to take advantage of the 30 day money back guarantee.

[Randy W]

 

 

Updates as of 2018-10-29 11:20pm GMT+8

If you’re having trouble using ExpressVPN, please try the following:

1. Make sure you’re using these specific versions of the ExpressVPN apps. This might involve needing to downgrade app versions.

Make sure your ExpressVPN app is set to use the automatic protocol.

• Windows: please use v6.7.3

 

I'm now becoming convinced that this is an ExpressVPN problem, and NOT a Great Firewall issue - the network connections on Windows are entirely different from what they used to be

 

 

 

I have ExpressVPN and am shopping around before the license expires next month. It seems to be easier to use than some others but they cannot quite get connections to stay if you leave it for even 5 or 10 minutes. It drops the connection no matter what protocol you use, auto or otherwise. There are other times when it simply hangs up and shows the Disconnecting.... message. Had to reboot. Calling service may work. On this issue, they haven't a clue.

 

Some of the earlier problems I had went away with the upgrades but I am still pissed about the connection issue. Here is a link if you haven't gone fishing for another one. https://www.comparitech.com/vpn/reviews/

 

Check out PrivateVPN. I am thinking of that one, although some are pretty good. Slow download speed is a problem for a lot of them. Not this one. And it works in China with some tweaking.

 

 

It seems to me that a TCP connection is preferable (to UDP), since it's NOT always on by default. But I use Auto as long as it's working (which it is now). It seems to be they (ExpressVPN) have the best research into what works in China. But, yes, they screwed up big time yesterday, in a way that makes me think THEY may be responsible for some of the disconnects I put up with. My phone works fairly seamlessly, however, even when connected to our home WiFi (when it goes through the same connection as my desktop).

 

The three factors are your ISP and connection, the Great Firewall, and the VPN. It can be difficult to determine which causes a particular outage, especially since throughput here sometimes drops to Zero.

 

I didn't like what I read in the reviews about PrivateVPN, so I signed up for NordVPN as a backup. They were rated ABOVE ExpressVPN in a couple of reviews. So far, I've only been able to connect twice, but was unable to connect to any site (DNS lookup failed). I'll have to see if I can't find a server that works (they take a LONG time to give a 'Connection failed').Their price right now is at a 70% discount - I think it's $107 for three years, so I'll have it around to play with for a while, unless I decide to take advantage of the 30 day money back guarantee.

 

Witopia is a VPN provider that we (CFL) used to recommend about 6 or 8 years ago, but they were too heavily dependent on OpenVPN, including using the default OpenVPN port, which is VERY easily blocked.

Edited October 31, 2018 by Randy W (see edit history)

[Randy W]

"I didn't like what I read in the reviews about PrivateVPN,"

 

This is a killer for me - no thanks! Also, many complaints about a lack of service.

 

When I tried to get to the PrivateVPN website while connected to NordVPN, it told me my IP block was BANNED!

 

The only thing that is a bit annoying is the security feature of shutting down all programs when internet connection is lost, I realise this is the whole point of the VPN & it's the fault of my terrible WiFi service not Private VPN.

 

But NordVPN is looking like a winner - I think the subscription just took a day to kick in. I can switch easily between NordVPN and ExpressVPN, I had to find some servers that work, but it seems FASTER than Express, and the performance seems more consistent.

[Randy W]

I'm convinced now that the ExpressVPN Windows client is faulty - unable to reliably "keep it up", in a way that is NOT the fault of the Great Firewall, or the internet infrastructure here in China.

 

I am now using ExpressVPN on my phone - it seems to perform seamlessly there. I can leave it on all the time without noticing, except to access some sites in China. I have always gotten better performance there, even when connected through my WiFi.

 

But it may be worthwhile to keep TWO VPN's, one as backup - I have until my ExpressVPN subscription runs out in March to decide whether to keep it.

 

NordVPN has literally THOUSANDS of servers in the U.S., so a little game of hide-and-seek may work to your advantage. They tell you the load on each server - simply choose one with a load less than 10%.

[Randy W]

Looks like Winston and C-Milk are now promoting NordVPN - http://nordvpn.com/advchina

 

This link is direct, without going through YouTube

 

https://nordvpn.com/youtube/?coupon=advchina&utm_medium=affiliate&utm_term&utm_content&utm_campaign=off292&utm_source=aff8358

 

The $107.55 price for 3 years is a real bargain - it also says it's "billed every three years", so seemingly renewable at that rate

Edited November 10, 2018 by Randy W (see edit history)