Global Times | 14/12/2012 1:15:13
By Zhang Zihan
Residents in China found the connection to their Facebook and Twitter accounts increasingly difficult in recent days after several VPN Popular (virtual private network) companies have alleged that great firewall of China (GFW) has been upgraded. However, officials and experts in the Internet industry in China said it is illegal for foreign companies to operate a VPN business in China.
Three VPN service providers overseas, Astrill, Witopia StrongVPN and apologized on Thursday that their service to residents in the Chinese mainland has been blocked due to a recent update of the GWF . Astrill said that most VPN protocols have been blocked, and that many foreign companies have been influenced.
fang binxing, designer of GFW, told the Global Times Thursday that he did not know of any upgrade of the firewall.
"As far as I know, the corporations that run a VPN business in China must be registered with the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology. I have not heard that all foreign companies registered, "said Fang.
Unregistered VPN service providers are not protected by Chinese laws, and any company that manages a VPN company should realize their responsibility to record, he said.
an employee of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, surnamed Li, also confirmed that only Chinese companies and Sino-foreign joint ventures can apply to establish a VPN business.
While most VPN users in China only use a VPN to access certain sites, some multinational companies also use to conduct business operations.
a framework for a large multinational foreign technology in China, which is also a VPN user, said Global Times most people can survive without Facebook, but it lacks a VPN could seriously affect business operations.
"You can not block all VPN without locking companies, including Chinese companies. China wants the companies to regional headquarters in China. It has these economic and trade objectives that depend on infrastructure of modern business, "said the executive.
Li suggested that multinational companies should cooperate with local businesses to build their VPN networks to complement their own global communication networks.
"These companies must abide by Chinese laws and find local businesses permitted to establish their Chinese VPNs," she said.
Martin Johnson, founder of GreatFire.org, a website that monitors the Internet in China, told the Global Times Thursday that there are ways for Web users to access their favorite websites .
"Although VPNs are blocked, foreign and Chinese citizens can still use a range of tools to work around this," he said.
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