China blocks VPN access to the Internet

BEIJING — China has begun cracking down on one of the few avenues its citizens and foreigners have to accessing the full Internet, the Global Times newspaper in Beijing reported.

China announced it is "upgrading" its Internet censorship to disrupt VPN services inside the nation of 1.3 billion people, the paper said.

The Great Firewall of China has long blocked those within the country from reaching popular international sites such as Google, Twitter, Facebook and YouTube.

To get around it, people must purchase access to a virtual private network, or VPN. These services allow a user to create a private pipeline to the Internet, bypassing China's online censors.

Under Chinese law, companies and individuals that use VPN services are required to register with the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, though few do.

Astrill, one of the more popular VPN providers in China tweeted that "due to increased censorship in China," VPN usage on Apple devices was being blocked "in almost real-time."

The blockage "is just a way for China to say 'we don't want you here,' " Astrill said.

Astrill customers in China received a further message Saturday. For those using the company's VPN on iPhones or iPads "due to increased censorship this year, our software is no longer working in China," Astrill said.

"We know how access to unrestricted Internet is important to you, so our fight with Chinese censors is not over," it added.

Astrill expects a new, working iOS application to be available by the end of next week. Other VPN services are operating in China.

Crackdowns on VPN systems and Internet access in China happen with some regularity.

"The Chinese government has attempted to curtail the use of VPNs that its citizens use to escape the Great Firewall for a couple years," said Sunday Yokubaitis, president of Golden Frog, a VPN popular in China.

The Chinese blockage of VPNs this week "is more sophisticated than what we've seen in the past." However, the blockage doesn't mean everyone in China is unable to reach the full Internet.

Yokubaitis said that only some of Golden Frog's server locations have been affected. Customers in China are still able to reach its servers in Japan, South Korea and much of Europe. They can then use those servers as a jumping off point to freely browse the Web, he said.

The Global Times, part of the same group as the Communist Party's flagship newspaper, the People's Daily, ran the story on the VPN crackdown only in its small circulation English language edition, not its highly popular, nationalistic Chinese edition.

Most media in the nation avoid discussing the highly sensitive issue of VPNs, as it involves the nation's massive system of Internet censorship, but several major news websites did run a Chinese version of the story Friday.

Weise reported from San Francisco.