According to Google’s data, as well as analysis from Dyn Research – an Internet-analysis group, Gmail service is virtually inaccessible in mainland China. This is only the latest step by China to oust the services of the American search giant from the Asian nation.
Google’s Transparency Report charts show traffic began to fall in China late on Christmas Day and hit zero before midday on Boxing day, TIME.com reports.
Google told TIME that there’s nothing potentially affecting the service from their end.
“We’ve checked and there’s nothing wrong on our end,” said Google in an email.
While Chinese nationals may as well have to acquaint themselves with Google’s alternatives, this latest move – which effectively removes the last means of accessing Gmail from behind China’s Great Firewall without a virtual private network – will mean travellers may effectively be in the dark once their arrive in China for business.
@DynResearch confirms China #GFW IP-level block of Google’s http://t.co/XhsNku2A6Q when served from #HongKong pic.twitter.com/uV3Y8pgHTQ
— Dyn Research (@DynResearch) December 28, 2014
China and Google have long had a complicated relationship. Earlier this year, the country blocked access to all Google services in June ahead of the 25th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre.
Before that, China blocked Google services in 2009 and 2012. In 2010, Google publicly said it would no longer censor its search engine in China, a move that the company acknowledged could mean withdrawing from the country entirely.
