Bypassing China's Firewall

Yes, and Im going to tell you how. It's not too complicated, but a little computer knowledge helps. The key is to use a secure, encrypted connection, which can be set up using Tor.

Tor is an Onion routing system that allows you to browse the net anonymously and without interception. In Onion routing, data is repeatedly encrypted and then sent through several network nodes called onion routers. Each onion router removes a layer of encryption to uncover routing instructions, and sends the message to the next router where this is repeated. This process makes your web activity completely anonymous and makes it very difficult if not impossible to intercept your data. Sound complicated? Well it is in some respects. You can read more about it here. The reason Im telling you this is because onion encryption can be used to bypass censorship firewalls, including China's.

Before you get too exited, Tor has limitations. Due to the "detour" onion routing makes your data take, your internet speed will be significantly slower. Also, rich web applications such as Java, Flash, ActiveX, RealPlayer, Quicktime, PDF's etc will be disabled. You won't be able to use sites that completely rely on these services such as YouTube.

Here's what you will need to use Tor effectively:

Vidalia Tor Client
Mozilla Firefox
NoScript
Torbutton
HTTPS Everywhere

All of these are available for all operating systems. It is important that you download these tools before you go to China, as the websites for the Tor Project and the EFF are blocked.

Start up Vidalia, after it connects, start Firefox and toggle Torbutton. Next go to the following address:

https://check.torproject.org/

If everything is working properly, the page will confirm your connection to the Tor network and you may begin browsing. Other applications that use the internet can also be configured to use Tor, but this requires much more technical skills. The important thing is, you have a browser.

An easier way to encrypt your web browsing is to use Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure (HTTPS). This encrypts your connection with the website without Tor. I used this trick all the time to visit facebook at school. However, not all websites support HTTPS, but many important ones do such as Facebook, Wikipedia and Google (websites in the search results my not however). Use the HTTPS Everywhere Firefox extension above to automatically visit sites in HTTPS mode.

Since I do not live in a country with censored internet (yet) I cannot guarantee first hand that either of these will work, but its your best shot.

If Tor is not for you, an alternative way to bypass the firewall is to use a proxy site courtesy of PeaceFire. PeaceFire maintains an e-mail list it sends out weekly of different proxy sites that can be used to bypass the firewall. The proxy site will give you further instructions. You can join the e-mail list here.

Happy Browsing

UPDATE: One reader has commented that Tor is no longer effective against the Chinese fire wall. Im not sure as to what extent this is true, but as he said, a VPN is the most reliable method for bypassing the firewall. Although you will likely have to pay for it.

Free Internet!

The city of Chongqing is trying to establish uncensored internet access for foreigners and foreign companies, hoping to a center for the IT industry in China. They might want to be careful about opening up their internet, as this slashdot user sums up perfectly:

Be careful offering a little freedom. In former Eastern Germany, their communist regime provided retail stores only for foreigners (or specially privileged East Germans with western money). This made people there very resentful of their government ... and eventually, they got rid of it.

Although Chinese citizens won't be allowed to use the free internet, it make them feel more jealous about   having their internet censored when westerners are using it in the middle of one of their major cities.

China: Enforcing the Laws of Physics

Chinese Government Bans Time Travel

Have you ever wished you could go back in time? Well if your in China its not going to happen. The Chinese government has recently put a ban on time travel. At least on screen. State censors have released new guidelines discouraging shows and movies who's plot revolves around time travel. The law was made to protect the integrity of China's history. I guess Dr Who won't be coming to China anytime soon.

censorship

Source

Dear Chinese Guy,

I have a friend in Shanghai, China and I have been writing a couple of letters to him. My first question is, why does it take so long to send a letter to China? He received the first one I sent to him months after I sent it.

I know it's wrong to question the government if you live in China, but even if I send mail with questions, will they confiscate that as well? And will they block communications with my friend?

He told me he was very eager to respond to the incoming mail, and for some reason he's stopped speaking to me... I backtracked what the cause to that might be, and I know it's nothing personal, so I was wondering if the government is involved with the contact he has with me. Is this possible?

Thanks,
Sara


Dear Sara.

AFAIK postage always seem to take ages from China, back in the days when HK was British it took months. I recall back in 2007 sending a post card back to my work place and it took 3 months. Therefore postage is slow in China anyway, hell it's a state run monopoly they can take ages if they want. (DHL for instance took weeks to get a parcel from a depot down the road to me). Hell on my 2009 trek I posted post cards home to myself and family. They are still arriving in 2011 better late than never I suppose.

Regarding the does China censor letters and or is my friend in trouble issue. I doubt it, but if the CCP did do this then I wouldn't at all be surprised if they did. Namely as the CCP has some serious social issues which it is trying to mask. They are merely papering over the cracks and trying to hide the symptoms of a very unbalanced society. Not least the awful Gini Coefficient of 4.7 mass unemployment and environmental issues. The CCP censorship department is pretty freaking powerful such that the (public) leaders of the PRC are surprised when their speeches are edited heavily for broadcast even though they were generally in line with that of the ideals of the CCP.

My thoughts that they wouldn't is that there are millions if not millions of Chinese who live outside China who send post back and forth into and out of China daily. And it would be a pretty damned tough task in which to covertly open read and or censor such letters. Though letters have to pass through the state system due to a law FedEX and DHL complained about nigh on ten years ago. Thus its a technological barrier to doing this. Hell in the past a LOT of my DVDs without tax paid used to slip in from the USA, and if a modern 1st world country with high levels of automation can't catch my obvious DVDs then can China.

Also some points to consider.

The thing is though the CCP's version of censorship so far is less of a East German knock on your door in the middle of the night and be on the receiving end of a kicking/prison sentence. It is more of a passive aggressive system. Take for example the great firewall.

If you search for something the CCP censors then it locks you out for a minute or two even from legitimate websites allowed in China. Do it again and it doubles the blocking time, do it again and it doubles the blocking time. Thus much like a child with a hot pan the people learn NOT to look at websites which are verboten in China. People will learn not to go looking for such things thus they self censor in a sort of chilling effect method which is a pretty sneaky if not clever way to go about it tbh.

A similar system recently reported on and suspected with telephony AND SMS messages, anything the censors don't like (automated which is theorised as to why China is building super computers) it cuts you off. Or if you say something bad the CCP does not like on an SMS message your phone gets bricked which would be pretty crappy if you just spent a lot of money on it.

He may simply not be talking to you because he is busy or as Jocelyn covered it in a post a while ago here. That Chinese men will stop talking to you to save face and attempt to make you go away. It's a cultural thing I suppose. My wider family know to leave me alone if I don't talk to them for a bit and they have the sense to leave me alone.