China stops blocking Google's Web site

IDG News Service - BEIJING -- China has apparently ceased efforts to block access to Google Inc.'s Web site that lasted for nearly two weeks and saw Internet service providers 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 resumed here yesterday.
Blocking access to undesirable Web sites through the use of IP filters has been a common government tactic since commercial Internet access first became available here 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 hadn't been previously employed (see story). Search engine AltaVista Co. has also been blocked in China.
While access to Google's main site is now possible, pages that return search results for sensitive keywords, such as falun gong, the spiritual movement that is banned here, remain blocked. China also continues to block access to cached copies of Web pages stored by Google.
China appears to have moved 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, said Duncan Clark, managing director at telecommunications analyst BDA China Co.
"You can get on Google, but you might not get access to the [search] results you want," Clark said.
Despite Chinese efforts to cut off access to Google, Beijing Web portal Netease.com Inc. for the past two weeks has continued to use Google's search engine as the back end for Web searches conducted on its site, without interruption. Netease.com filters those search results, the company said.