James Fallows has an update. Appears that you can get to most of the articles if you simply delete the “www” that prefaces the URL. Some links, such as those to NYT blogs, don’t begin with www, and these sites will now open from the homepage, albeit slowly. But for nearly all their articles, clicking the link without manipulating the address will still result in a timed-out server.
This holds true in Beijing as of right now. Fallows says he’s having no trouble accessing the NYT from Shanghai at the moment, making the situation even more baffling. On again, off again.
Facebook has been this way for the past couple of months now – you never know if you’ll get on or not. Why do they bother? [Rhetorical question, no reply necessary.]
Update: The NYT writes about the block.
1
By ecodelta
Just an idea.
Dig a hole from China all the way to the US, then throw a cable through it. (Better than CAT-6 if possible)
No more problems with the Great Chinese Firewall(tm)
You could make some business selling un-firewalled bandwidth…
😉
December 21, 2008 @ 2:23 am | Comment
2
By Buck
“Dig a hole from China all the way to the US…”
They’ve already done this (i.e., dug a hole from the US to China).
It’s called the US national debt.
December 21, 2008 @ 12:48 pm | Comment
3
By tracy---jiangwenzhi
i can not agree with buck. it is incredible,just thinking about it.Can you dig a hole from China to the US?if you can, maybe you are a Manis pentadactyla.
December 21, 2008 @ 5:53 pm | Comment
4
By ecodelta
“It’s called the US national debt.”
Just one question. US national debt is in dollars; US can print dollars; They can print as many small green papers as they want.
Therefore… Do the US really has a debt?
(at least compared to other countries)
December 21, 2008 @ 7:20 pm | Comment
5
By Not_a_Sinophile
ecodelta, that’s an interesting point. A significant part of that debt was in the form of mortgages. Now that the housing “bubble” has collapsed, we have succeeded in transferring that debt back to the US with many foreign investors left holding the bag. Sure we’ll bail out or own banks, but what happens to the rest of the world? Obviously, it doesn’t seem to concern Washington too much. Their solution is to keep the printing presses at the Treasury running 24/7!
December 21, 2008 @ 7:57 pm | Comment
6
By Buck
What happens if China suddenly makes the Rmb fully convertible (like the us dollar, Japanese Yen, Euro, etc.)? Could the Chinese then exchange their US dollar reserve holdings for Rmb, thereby crashing the US dollar and leaving the Rmb reigning supreme?
December 21, 2008 @ 10:42 pm | Comment
7
By Not_a_Sinophile
The Chinese cannot unilaterally make their currency convertible. The only reason those other currencies have a market is because there is worldwide “confidence” in them. I don’t believe there is any confidence in the Chinese governments ability to back its currency.
December 22, 2008 @ 3:29 am | Comment
8
By ecodelta
” I don’t believe there is any confidence in the Chinese governments ability to back its currency.”
Maybe with the pile of dollars they have… 😉
December 22, 2008 @ 5:42 am | Comment