So they can see exactly where the great firewall of china runs..

...proxies are for.

I really cant understand why yahoo, google and co all are so willing to bend over backwards to help the chinese authorities when it comes to cracking down on bloggers, etc. when the Chinese so routinely screw them over like this...

Perhaps they should grow a backbone and say "Well there going to screw us anyway, we'll stop helping them persecute bloggers!"...

Yet China wants to dictate terms to the West in regards to honouring the Dalai Lama, while telling our search engines to fuck off. Well, then maybe when Bush meets the Dalai Lama later this month to award him with a presidential honour, he show show it off as publicly as possible, and in the process let China know that while we may depend on their cheap labour they depend on our consumption. Both America and China are now equally despotic tyrannies in different ways, so it should be easier now for a balance to occur whereby neither one gains any ground on the other.

I find it ironic and funny that these companies that rolled over, er I mean "cooperated" with the Chinese authorities are rewarded with their sites being blocked. I hope those sites stay blocked, especially Yahoo!'s who it appears was not content just to handover Chinese discontents, but also stands accused of being untruthful to Congress about the whole sorry affair.

All the sites listed work fine for me this morning from a China Netcom connection in Beijing. Perhaps it's only happening in Shanghai, but a bad case of malware seems more likely to me.

Learn Chinese. They will be our overlords.

Now if only Chinanet and China Netcom could put a tiny bit of effort into blocking their outgoing spam or shutting down their criminal networks. It can't be any harder than blocking selected new stories. Better yet, they could redirect it to Verizon, which has been holding the #1 Spamhaus ranking for quite some time now.

... deserve each other. Both guilty of human rights abuses. Both guilty of gross contamination of the planet.

They didn't bend over backwards, they bent over forwards and hoped they'd be well rewarded for it.

Why is it recently we are constantly being notified about what China is up to. The US & UK government are already in contract with the named organisations about what will and will not be passed to the customers.

I wonder why we never see any derogatory comments on the like of Google making it back to us.

Now just to clarify - Microsoft (who is backed by the American DOD for some strange reason) is in partnership with Google (who has agreements with western governments on what content to allow) with Goolges rival (who will do anything to gain favour from governments) are advertising that China is doing something they all already do?

I maybe a little slow this morning but doesn't all the organisation & governments keep track of what comes in and out of their networks - it the responsible thing to do.

I wonder if China monitor their nationwide telephone conversations as we do?

I wonder if China videos their people on the same level as in the UK?

I wonder if China waste billions on fighting wars they started forcing all types of tax increases on their citizens?

I wonder if China have more rights for people coming into the country than their own population?

Very simply put - our governments don't involve us in our own affairs so why on China's?

My business was approachjed by a large IT organisation, move to china its cheaper they said.

I seen the figures, they are good, but if the government thinks this level of behaviour is acceptable without consultation, I fear that any IC and other rights that are kind of honoured in India may not be quite as safe in China.

Give it a few years

"..Bush meets the Dalai Lama later this month to award him with a presidential honour, he show show it off as publicly as possible.."

Well obviously, Bush is presenting an award to the Dalai Lama for the sole reason of pissing off the Chinese, he certainly isn't doing it for any other reason as Bush hasn't shown an interest/care in others unless they are within the US (and even those he doesn't give much of a shit about).

At least the Dalai isn't stupid and being the decent good soul that he is, he'll accept it withe grace even though he knows it's politically laced.

Couldn't get 2 people more further apart in terms of decency.

When this happened before, in 2002, everyone pointed the finger at the chinese government for ordering this redirection. From the rather confused reaction from the chinese government to the complaints at the time and from other comments I heard from people within China, I doubt very much that this was an official government order. Plus, for an official chinese block it'd be more likely the sites failed to resolve than to redirect to a home-grown site.

What is much more likely is corruption. Someone who would benefit financially from Baidu getting more search traffic paid a sum to someone who had the power over the firewall to divert traffic for a few days to Baidu. Might not have been Baidu themselves, could even have been one of their big advertisers.

Of course, the Chinese government are more than willing to block things at the drop of a hat if they feel like it, but greed is a more likely motivator than politics here.

Yes 'The Sceptic' I'm talking to you! Obviously you're a representative of the People's Republic. We won't fall for your puny propaganda!

A few more weeks at those English classes will pay off - then your poor spelling and grammar will not so blantantly give the game away.

Hmm...I think that once the Dalai knocks at your door, the communication game has already started without you, hence, you better have to receive him

>At least the Dalai isn't stupid and being the decent good soul that he

>is, he'll accept it withe grace even though he knows it's politically laced.

You think the exiled Tibetan bhuddist leader doesn't have any political agenda in regard to China?

I'm not sure it'll demonstrate some aspect of consumption and production though, I suspect it's probably a bit of karma for China's awkwardness over Burma recently.

@The Sceptic

>I wonder if China monitor their nationwide telephone conversations as we do?

Yes, on a massive scale, that's partly what the Great Firewall is about.

>I wonder if China videos their people on the same level as in the UK?

No, but most of them live in sheds that cost less than a video camera so it would be stupid, in the cities though they have a growing CCTV network.

>I wonder if China waste billions on fighting wars they started

>forcing all types of tax increases on their citizens?

Like invading Tibet and parts of Northern India you mean?

>I wonder if China have more rights for people coming into the country

>than their own population?

Damn right, you're much better off as a foreigner in China than the Chinese are.

You can wander around saying how religious you are for instance, something the Falun Gong would probably like to do.

You seem pretty free with your criticism of a government that you believe is out to get you. May be that's because, your scepticism notwithstanding, you haven't actually been visited by the local Plod in the middle of the night and taken away from your family and shot, recently.

Yeah I don't trust the government either, but I have enough sense of proportion to distinguish between politicians who don't care what I think and politicians who do care very much and would really like me to shut up, now.

As a UK citizen, I am getting really pissed off with the way people treat our cousins accross the pond.

If the whining shits above want to say that China and the US are the same, I ask them this: If forced, which would you emigrate to?

I'll give you a hint, choose the one that has a free (but not perfect) media. The one where internet traffic is not redirected by the government. The one where you can call that prize idiot Dubya a prize idiot and not get imprisoned for it. How many Chinese films have been made and widely shown in China like "Faharenhit 9/11" or "Bowling for Columbine"?

Sure, the USA is not perfect but let's try and keep it in some sort of perspective.

You don't see China re-routing the gold farmers...

I agree with the skeptic

nothing like a bit of China bashing to make all the eurofags and big dick yanks feel better about their draconian policies and global war on hummanity oops I mean "terror".

Keep bashing, bash away.

Wankers

>You don't see China re-routing the gold farmers...

Or as China sees it, "IT workers" selling their "skills" abroad and doing quite nicely out of it too.

Strange how they don't give a damn about that...

>If forced, which would you emigrate to?

China

Heard they have a lot of fasthosts accounts :)

While U.S president, did pro "democracy" supporter Bill Clinton send communist China, American 'super computer' technology to help build Internet traffic pinching programs - No, the 'super computers' were given to help build their military arsenal. Hey Google, if you complain about China pinching your traffic to much you might find a high tech WMD in your back yard. I wonder what Hilary Clinton would give China should she get into the Whitehouse? Let's not find out hey! - RONPAUL 2008!

Aw, did going into business with an oppressive regime leave you out and alone in the cold? I'm sure all those people these companies finked out to Chinese authorities feel for you.

Dear Fellow readers of The Register,

It would appear I may have brushed across some issues which brought offence to individuals, that being the case – tough!! You don’t appear to condone the actions of China yet you would seem to prefer my thoughts be censored (oh yes the irony :0) )

@ Jolyon Ralph – I think you may have hit the nail on the head with this being more corporate based than government, know any British companies with interests in China who would benefit from this type of endeavour?

@ 1865 – My translator now work velly well so future statements of propaganda should be integrated more seamlessly – thank you for bringing this to our attention.

@ JonB – Dear Jon………….

@ Ken Hagan – Skimming the whole conspiracy theory, if I do receive a visit from the men in black then at least we will know I was right about something (I knew there was a real live alien still living at area 51!)

@ China's Super Computers – So simply put – our own equipment is being used against use, why does that have a familiar ring to it???

To summarise, I do have an interest in the global economy but wonder what the US & UK governments are up to that they seem to be preparing a justification for something they are about to do!

Lets keep this on track...

Somewhere in china something dodgy happened that is ok by the rest of china, the only loosers are Google and Microsoft.

A bit like setting up MP3 hosting in the ukraine, dont see anyone complaining about that.

At the end of the day someone somewhere in China realised that China is not bound by the laws of these 'Capatilist Superpowers' and changed the rules, good on em.

On a serious note what do you think anyone (Not just google and microsoft) will learn from this if anything?

And do they care, I know it does not affect me and like global warming a toss I give not

To be quite frank I find the whole issue a little puzzling.

Only last month I had to put a block on a part of the Orange website as the link on their page was redirecting to another website although I haven't even heard mention of it. I am more interested in method of delivery for informing us of this matter. It stinks of propaganda - but why? I suppose it could be so credit card details aren't passed on to the wrong company - it could even be other countries trying to steel trade from China, I just don't know!

The article seems more to finger point and is vague at best without actually providing any facts. There are so many inaccurate statements issued by the western governments that I find it hard to take any of them seriously now.

I don't think it appropriate in the first place that Microsoft & Google complain about the matter publicly, this is the function of the relevant organisation within their country who should if required inform the public.

I think it has been overlooked also that internet connections (yeh I know - in theory) are two sided. Surely if it was decided the Chinese were acting illegally and there was real merit to the matter then there should be some sort of provision available to investigate - oh I forgot, the Microsoft operating systems so many use are by design setup to re-direct etc..

Anyway, Global Warming is out with my control so what I can't change I don't worry about - the crap about everyone doing their bit annoys me as the huge air conditioning systems the government and organisations place in their buildings throw huge quantities of heat back into the environment and use massive amounts of electricity (another conservation item)

Regards.

Unfortunately, you do appear to be a flame account used by bored Reg hacks to boost comments (sticking to conspiracy and all that), but, I do have a question - what kind of person coming into our country are you talking about? Asylum seekers? They definitely don't have more rights than we do, as the majority are actually rejected, even under compelling evidence. Do you mean illegal immigrants? While I agree we have a problem with illegal immigration, it is nowhere near the scale that certain papers make out, and, when caught, they have less rights than us, more likely to be extradited (even if they have lived a long time, or have children born here. It is quite possible for them to be extradited and their children to remain, as with asylum seekers). Or do you mean economic migrants? I don't see what rights economic migrants have over normal residents unless you do in fact believe the Daily Mail. They pay tax as we do, save councils money, bring in huge money to the country, and are generally quite easy going. So which do you mean?

As to other conspiracy stuff, I am in fact of the opinion that we live in a pretty dangerous country, with the government being given more power almost on a daily basis to mistreat normal citizens, never mind the possibility of rendition to a foreign jail or gitmo, based on the colour of your skin, or being shot 7 times in the head. CCTV coverage is truly ridiculous, and we flew domestically this weekend, and found the systems in place even more hair-brained. Every fifth person putting their shoes through the X-ray, having to put my lighter in a plastic bag..

In some ways we are a lot worse than China, China do what they do because they want power, and are as insecure as any other communist government before them (with good reason). We do it (under the pretense at least) because of terrorism, and if that truly is the reason, we've lost to some guys who couldn't even blow up a car. When the IRA killed people in London we stood strong and refused to move, now we have some crap terrorists, driving into airport bollards and it causes us to allow our government, the same people who are meant to speak for the people, to remove our basic liberties, watch our every movement, track our numberplates, and grab us at will for internment. Nice one Britain.

May I start by saying there are certain topics which need to be addressed responsibly and jumping in guns blazing in my opinion is not the way.

My issue with asulum seekers is that from day one the service was managed poorly. The best of intentions is no criteria for success. In my experience asylum seekers are given priority for housing & benifits although having worked with quite a few I must concede they are more dedicated to their employer than the established UK residents more often than not.

Illegal immigrants are not a concern of mine - its as simple as the countries they cross allow them to pass so they become someone elses problem.

Extradition is nothing more than a joke. On one hand the authorities want them here to monitor their contacts - on the other Joe Public doesn't understand this.

You do seem a little caught up in the whole conspiracy thing though - bear in mind a lot of the leaders of the foriegn powers were educated in western countries. For me it is a source of amusement with the belief that when they do actually happen we will probably never know anyway.

CCTV in my opinion is a must, having installed a few systems myself and seen the benifits it is worth its weight in gold - its more of a preventative measure I feel in the long term although the last couple of years the police have not been declaring it which in my opinion borders on entrapment.

Air travel can't be too secure as a lot can go wrong with very little chance of survival if your unlucky enough to be on that plane - I wouldn't object to all passengers being searched and x-rayed. You would probably see things differently if you were standing in queue and someone carrying a bomb was caught - saving you from their sacrifice.

Ireland - I think you should check your history and get more of an understanding before throwing ill informed acusations onto the fire.

Back to the point, China - ultimately what difference does it make to us if the Chinese re-route traffic for Google & Microsoft - so what? Microsoft over prices at every opportunity based on their 'market research' and google honestly believe they can make a phone for which to advertise on and people will still pay for it. Its about time in my opinion that someone (or country) stood up and said so what - tough. If they don't like it then go elsewhere.

Just released - China are Iran's main trade partner which doesn't suit the US

http://www.guardian.co.uk/iran/story/0,,2199855,00.html

Surprise - Surprise

'I find it ironic and funny that these companies that rolled over, er I mean "cooperated" with the Chinese authorities are rewarded with their sites being blocked.'

They had to comply with the laws of the land in which they were doing business in. How is that different from:

1) the US forcing non-US banks to hand over financial details of their customers (who are not even US nationals FFS)

2) the US forcing airlines to hand over passenger details

under the pretense of Bush's War of Terror.