The easing of a ban on Wikipedia traffic in China was short-lived.
Barely a week after Wikipedia viewers were able to access the Web site -- after a yearlong ban -- they reported yesterday that it was blocked again in several parts of China.
Chinese Web surfers and free speech advocates had earlier welcomed the apparent lifting of a ban on the English and Chinese versions of the site that provides free information written and edited by its users, although skeptics had voiced fears the end of the ban would be temporary.
"It was great news for us," said Yuan Mingli, 33, a software engineer in Shanghai who has contributed articles on computer science and Chinese historical figures to the site. "China's Internet users are not different from other countries' users. Wikipedia is a very important source of information for us."
It wasn't immediately clear if Wikipedia was inaccessible due to technical glitches or because government censors had blocked the site again.
Beijing blocked access to the English and Chinese versions of Wikipedia in October last year, apparently out of concern about entries touching on sensitive issues -- Tibet, Taiwan and other topics.
China's government has waged a battle to control the Internet and filter the information Chinese can get. Police employ an array of measures, from sophisticated filters and detection software that hunts for sensitive words to having officers monitor Web traffic.
As a result, surfing the Web in China is a very different experience from that in much of the world. Because almost anyone can add to and edit listings in Wikipedia, the site is famously freewheeling, addressing sensitive topics that pose a challenge to Beijing's control.
The site's English version was unblocked last month, while the Chinese version became available late last week, until yesterday when Net users such as Yuan said both versions could not be accessed.
"There are widespread reports of Wikipedia being inaccessible again in China," said Andrew Lih, a Beijing-based researcher who is writing a book about Wikipedia.
Lih said Web users trying to access blocked sites often receive a technical-error message instead of one that says the Web site is being blocked.
Lih said earlier the number of new registered users on the Chinese version of Wikipedia had jumped in the past week to an average of 1,200-1,300 a day -- more than a threefold increase from 300-400 a day before the ban was lifted on or around Nov. 9.
"And that's just the number of registered users. The number of people in China who are reading Wikipedia but don't register is much, much higher," Lih said.
Experts had earlier expressed skepticism over the Chinese government's unannounced lifting of the ban on the popular site, saying it could be only temporary.
Wikipedia contributors such as Yuan said they recalled at least two instances before the ban when censors teased Internet users by sporadically blocking access to the site for weeks at a time.
"In the context of a politically censored environment ... Wikipedia becomes ... also a place to engage, to debate, to share information and to spread information otherwise being forbidden," said Xiao Qiang, director of the China Internet Project at the University of California, Berkeley.
"I am almost certain that much government `undesired' information and discussion will appear on this platform again and that's why I am still concerned about its future in China," Xiao said.
It was also not clear why Beijing had earlier allowed access to the site.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu said on Thursday that she had no information on the issue, but added China "actively supports and promotes the development of the Internet."
FIREPOWER: On top of the torpedoes, the military would procure Kestrel II anti-tank weapons systems to replace aging license-produced M72 LAW launchers Taiwan is to receive US-made Mark 48 torpedoes and training simulators over the next three years, following delays that hampered the navy’s operational readiness, the Ministry of National Defense’s latest budget proposal showed. The navy next year would acquire four training simulator systems for the torpedoes and take receipt of 14 torpedoes in 2027 and 10 torpedoes in 2028, the ministry said in its budget for the next fiscal year. The torpedoes would almost certainly be utilized in the navy’s two upgraded Chien Lung-class submarines and the indigenously developed Hai Kun, should the attack sub successfully reach operational status. US President Donald Trump
TPP RALLY: The clashes occurred near the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall on Saturday at a rally to mark the anniversary of a raid on former TPP chairman Ko Wen-je People who clashed with police at a Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) rally in Taipei on Saturday would be referred to prosecutors for investigation, said the Ministry of the Interior, which oversees the National Police Agency. Taipei police had collected evidence of obstruction of public officials and coercion by “disorderly” demonstrators, as well as contraventions of the Assembly and Parade Act (集會遊行法), the ministry said in a statement on Sunday. It added that amid the “severe pushing and jostling” by some demonstrators, eight police officers were injured, including one who was sent to hospital after losing consciousness, allegedly due to heat stroke. The Taipei
NO LIVERPOOL TRIP: Taiwan’s Lin Yu-ting, who won a gold medal in the boxing at the Paris Olympics, was embroiled in controversy about her gender at that event Taiwanese boxer Lin Yu-ting (林郁婷) will not attend this year’s World Boxing Championships in Liverpool, England, due to a lack of response regarding her sex tests from the organizer, World Boxing. The national boxing association on Monday said that it had submitted all required tests to World Boxing, but had not received a response as of Monday, the departure day for the championships. It said the decision for Lin to skip the championships was made to protect its athletes, ensuring they would not travel to the UK without a guarantee of participation. Lin, who won a gold medal in the women’s 57kg boxing
The US has revoked Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s (TSMC, 台積電) authorization to freely ship essential gear to its main Chinese chipmaking base, potentially curtailing its production capabilities at that older-generation facility. American officials recently informed TSMC of their decision to end the Taiwanese chipmaker’s so-called validated end user (VEU) status for its Nanjing site. The action mirrors steps the US took to revoke VEU designations for China facilities owned by Samsung Electronics Co and SK Hynix Inc. The waivers are set to expire in about four months. “TSMC has received notification from the US Government that our VEU authorization for TSMC Nanjing
RSS