China has lifted efforts to block access to Google's Web site that
lasted for nearly two weeks and saw ISPs hijack the search engine's
domain name for several days. However, there are signs that China
has implemented more sophisticated techniques to restrict access to
certain types of information.
Limited access to Google's Web site in China resumed yesterday (12
September). Blocking access to undesirable Web sites through the
use of IP filters has been a common Chinese government tactic since
the commercial Internet was first made available in the country in
1995. However, authorities raised the bar earlier this week,
hijacking Google's domain name and rerouting traffic to several
Chinese sites - a tactic that had not been previously employed.
While access to Google's main site is now possible, pages that
return search results for sensitive keywords, such as "falun gong,"
a spiritual movement that has been banned, remain blocked. China
also continues to block access to cached copies of Web pages stored
by Google.
China appears to have move beyond simply blocking access to a Web
site with IP filters and may now be employing packet filters to
scan individual packets for undesirable information, Duncan Clark,
managing director at telecommunication analyst BDA China, said.
"You can get on Google but you might not get access to the results
you want," Clark said.
Despite Chinese efforts to cut off access to Google, Beijing Web
portal Netease.com has continued to use Google's search engine as
the back end for Web searches conducted on its site, without
interruption. Netease.com filters the search results from Google,
the company said.