@cloudtrapezer: "Prisoners in US better off than average Chinese citizens?"
That does NOT equal what I wrote: "it will still be better than most prisoners in China".
" particular news sites have been blocked for publishing particular stories"
Yes, and that is reactionary, not retaliatory. The blocking is not an attempt to revenge the publishing, but to prevent Chinese from accessing those (and any further) stories.
Btw, I used incorrect term. Replace "reactionary" with "reactive".
Jan sorry I got your meaning wrong but what you wrote was
"it will still be better than most prisoners in China anyway, if not average citizens." It's ambiguous I guess.
I don't think we're seriously disagreeing on the blocking issue. I'd just note though that other sites reproduced the offending stories without getting blocked so there was an element of revenge.
I also heard that you should not use vpn
Well, Vikalina, they shouldn't be necessary, but they are.
@Ishmael: "they shouldn't be necessary, but they are"
I believe that comment may be limited to China and the obvious use here.
But VPN's are used beyond that context, everywhere in the world, to provide not only access past restrictive regimes, but to provide privacy and information security.
One could still ask, should they be necessary. Well, as long as internet connections and services are not built-in with equivalent (or better) security, they are indeed necessary.
Knowing human nature, they should be necessary too - and by that I mean, people should be aware of the risks in information security, and apply safeguards that they can. In that role, (trustworthy) VPNs are just a further step from having secure passwords.
And to return to the Chinese context, even if VPNs would not be needed here to access foreign internet services, everything else about VPNs would still apply - and possibly, because TIC, even more than elsewhere.
In short, VPNs would not be necessary if either internet was secure enough to function without, or we could trust nobody and nothing to take advantage of lack of that security. Both are far-fetched utopias.
zzzzzzzzzzzz
Ishmael you're dead right.
Some municipalities have stricter VPN regulations than others. Perhaps GoKunming can enlighten us on VPN regulations here in Yunnan.
According to Chongqing Municipal Public Security Bureau's website,
"If an individual accesses international network privately or via 'illegal channels,' or offers related services without authorization, they could be fined up to 15,000 yuan."
Re-posted in English by State-backed chinanews.com:
I am under impression that VPN usage is governed by national laws, and is equally "illegal" in all provinces. I seriously consider the merit for foreigners going to the authorities and asking just how illegal is it here or in some place else.
Chongqing has somewhat different administrative circumstances than Yunnan for example, and lot of the stricter implementations probably arise from that position.
Elsewhere too, sudden increases in local regulatory implementations are often associated with some local hotshot official's run for Beijing.
