Gmail Accessible Again In China

Just after we brought you word that Gmail is no longer accessible in China earlier this week, along comes word that access – basic access, that is, to Gmail has begun to get back online over in the world’s most populous country. Apparently, the four-day outage had the blame pinned on Google by a segment of the China press, never mind the fact that it was the Chinese government themselves that implemented the block in the first place.

Ever since June, just about all of Google’s products have been disrupted – in a rather severe manner to boot, over in China. As folks living in that part of the world are unable to access Gmail through the website, email protocols including the likes of IMAP, SMTP, and POP3 had continued to be accessible. IP addresses that were used by Gmail for these protocols have left users without any avenue to send or receive emails.

Global Times China did mention, “Globally, Google has run into conflicts with authorities constantly with issues similar to those it has with the Chinese government. China welcomes the company to do business on the prerequisite that it obeys Chinese law; however, Google values more its reluctance to be restricted by Chinese law, resulting in conflict.”

Interesting point of view from the other side, or at least this is what folks in China are faced with, while the outside world peers in. It remains to be seen as to what is the main reason behind this most recent disruption, and there does not seem to be any signs that the “conflict” will be resolved anytime soon.

Edwin Kee
Categories: Computers
Tags: GMail