Wikipedia inaccessible for many in China, for now
There are widespread reports of Wikipedia being inaccessible again in China, and tests this morning indicate it is true. Some time between 7am and 10am this morning in Beijing, I lost access, and users of the following services have confirmed this too:
- Beijing - China Netcom, China Unicom, and academic network
- Shanghai - China Telecom
- Anhui - China Telecom
But a strong caveat - this could be a temporary outage, so don’t draw too many conclusions yet. Folks behind the Great Firewall are used to waiting for the situation to settle.
Ironically enough, this comes right when Chinese Wikipedia hit a record, with over 1800 new user registrations for the 24 hours ending at midnight Nov 17 UTC.
Check back for updates.
November 17th, 2006 01:47
[…] Update 4:43 PM Andrew Lih reports that the block is in effect elsewhere in China too. Hopefully it will only be temporary. […]
November 17th, 2006 02:02
Bummer. Very sorry to hear that.
A Jewish magazine has run an article (here: http://www.jewcy.com/feature/wiki_wars) arguing that Wikipedia shows how Israelis and Arabs might learn to produce a shared historical narrative that both sides can live with.
I wonder whether you buy that idea, and if so, whether (if China still allows access to Wikipedia) you think it applies equally to the varying historical narratives of the mainland Chinese and Taiwanese.
November 17th, 2006 02:26
from Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Jiang Yu’s Regular Press Conference on November 16 2006 : http://www.fmprc.gov.cn/eng/xwfw/s2510/2511/t280600.htm
“Q: Second question, the Chinese version of Wikipedia, which has been censored since last October, has been unblocked last week. What’s your comment?
A: I’m not aware of the information on the website you mentioned. The Chinese Government supports and promotes the development of the internet. By 2005, China’s internet subscribers reached over 123 million, and the number of Chinese websites 788 thousand. China has become the second largest internet user of the world. China administrates internet in accordance with law. This is also the usual practice by all the countries in the world. “
November 20th, 2006 20:30
[…] The news about Chinese wikipedia has been confusing. On Nov 13, it was widely accessible, on Nov 16, partial inaccessible, on Nov 17, a reblocked was confirmed and appeared more restrictive - Andrew Lih has the most elaborated update. Oiwan Lam […]