Technology News: Google Inc's Gmail was blocked in China,Great Firewall Suspected

Google Inc's Gmail was blocked in China,Great Firewall Suspected

Beijing news

Google Inc's Gmail was blocked in China after months of distruptions to the world's biggest email service,with an anti-censorship advocate suggesting the Great Firewall was to blame

Large numbers of Gmail web address were cut off in china on friday,said GreatFire.org,a China based freedom of advocacy group.Users said the Service was still down on Monday.

"I think the government is just trying to further eliminating Google's, present in china and even weaken its marker overseas," said a member of GreatFire,org,who uses a Pseudonym.

"Imagine if Gmail users might not get through to Chinese clients.Many people outside China might might be forced to switch away from Gmail."

Google's own Transperency Report,which shows real-time traffic to Google services,displayed a sharp drop-off in traffic to Gmail from China on friday,

"we have checked and there's nothing wrong on our  end," a Singapore-based spoke man for Google said in an email.

Almost all of Google's Services have been heavily disrupted in china since june this year, but until last week gmail users could still access emails download via protocols like IMAP,SMTP and POP3.These had let people communication using Gmail on apps like the Apple's Mail and Microsoft outlook.

China maintains tight control over the internet,nipping in the bud any signs of dissent or challenges to the rulling Communist Party's leadership.

The country is host to the world's most sophisticated internet censorship mechanism,known as Great Firewall of China. Critical say china has attempted up it's disruption of foreign online service like google over the past year to  creat an internet cut off from the rest of the world.

the Google  distruption began in the Run-up to the 25th anniversary of the government's bloody crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrators around Beijing's Tiananmen Square on june 4,1989.

Gmail's setback could make email communication difficult for companies operating in china which use Google's Gmail for their corporate email System, said GreatFire.org.

Chinese foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said did not know anything Gmail being blocked, adding that the government was committed to providing a good business environment for foreign for investors.

"China has consistently had a welcoming and supportive towards foreign investors doing legitimate business here", she said."we will,as always,provide an open,transparent and good environment for foreign companies in china