The Great Firewall of China takes on VPN’s
The Great Firewall of China takes on VPN’s
The legendary Great Firewall of China is a thorn in the side of any businessman or tourist wishing to get online when within the borders of what is a fascinating and commercially important country. Created by the government to block access to content deemed subversive or unsuitable for Chinese nationals, it has long troubled users wishing to use Google, Facebook, YouTube and more, although those with a little inside knowledge have been able to bypass restrictions by installing and using a Virtual Private Network, or VPN like HideMyAss Pro! VPN…
Cracking Down on VPN’s
The Chinese authorities have been aware of the growing popularity of VPN’s for some time, and have recently launched an initiative to crack down on their use. Although not illegal, they are frowned upon by the powers that be in China, and some users have found they were no longer able to access popular Western sites using their service. However, some services – notably Hotspot Shield among them, which is one of the more popular services – have reported that they have not been blocked. Quite why is unknown, although experts have discovered some interesting factors regarding the blocking methods being used.
OpenVPN Protocol
It has been discovered that the Chinese may be a step behind in their censorship technology, as it is believed they are blocking sites that use the less sophisticated OpenVPN protocol. This is as opposed to L2TP and PPTP protocols, which are more up to date, and services that use the above two can still be accessed within China. For business users, and personal users, being able to circumnavigate the firewall when in China makes things a lot easier, and it remains to be seen whether the Chinese will be willing to open their doors to such commercially beneficial aspects of the internet.
Boom in Business
What is interesting is that, thanks to the media coverage of China’s latest censorship exploits, interest in VPN technology has rocketed, with the main players in the market reporting a notable increase in users in recent weeks. The publicity given to the situation has in turn acted as publicity for the product, and the resulting demand is a welcome boost for the industry. If you need to use a VPN in China look or one using the more sophisticated protocol, and make sure you choose a server in the likes of Hong Kong, the USA or Europe for more chance of connection.
The internet is heavily censored within China thanks to the famous ‘Great Firewall’, a government initiative aimed at halting the use of various chat forums and websites by political subversives who post anti-government comments. They also choose to censor content that they believe to be unsuitable for Chinese nationals, and this can mean that visitors to the country, whether for business or pleasure, can be troublesome. Even giants such as Google have fallen foul of the strict internet restrictions, and visitors will find that streaming sites such as Netflix are heavily censored. However, there is something you can do to get around the Great Firewall, although it may take a little trial and error: invest in a virtual private network or 
The Chinese government is concerned at the way the internet allows users to access content that may be considered subversive, obscene, or that it simply considers to be not fit for the people. As social networking sites such as Twitter are largely a free chat forum, Chinese users could easily read comments that the government does not want it to see, either from anti-Chinese commentators or political adversaries. Wikipedia, and Google to an extent, are similarly censored.
The Great Firewall uses, in general, standard DNS server programming to implement its purpose; anyone requesting information that is not permitted by the government run servers will find access denied. However, by using a virtual private network – VPN – which access content by a server that is beyond the firewall, in other words not within China, visitors can access the content they require. The 
Despite what you may have been told, unblocking Facebook in China is not at all difficult, but you do need to subscribe to a Virtual Private Network, or VPN. It works like this: when in China, if you try and load Facebook the DNS server you get connected to will be a local one. It will detect that you are attempting to access blocked content, and refuse you entry. What a VPN does – among other impressive things – is allow you to choose a server to access beyond the firewall; choose one in a country that allows Facebook access, and you have it. In effect, you are fooling your smartphone, tablet or computer into believing you are not in China at all!