Hi all, this is a bit off-topic, but I'm researching VPN services for friends who will be visiting China. They were frustrated on their last visit by not being able to access western news sites and google. That time I set them up with mail forwarding so they could get their gmail through another provider, but this time they're looking for a better solution.
When I asked teh google, I didn't get much useful information, which was surprising at first. I'm conditioned to avoid sales-pushing sites with names like bestestvpnchina.x, and look for advice from more established sites, but after searching for awhile, I realized that there seems to be a deliberate absence of information from usually reliable sources - some coverage from news sites about attempts at blocking VPNs by China like this Techchrunch article China Continues Its Crackdown On VPN Services, but not the easy abundant access to relevant information to which I've grown accustomed.
This isn't an issue that I've been paying close attention to, so rather than running around and coming up with a bunch of theories, I thought I'd throw myself on the wisdom of the Kos Collective - what experiences do people have with VPNs and tech-related censorship in China? What are good sources for information on this topic?
I'm reminded of a time when I visited Eastern Europe as a child with my family, when the Iron Curtain was wearing thin, and we took a day trip to Hungary (or maybe Czechoslovakia) from Vienna. I believe that this was during the Reagan years, so the Evil Empire narrative was still running quite strong, and security was tight at and beyond the border - armed guards and a strong military presence.
We went as a family to a post office in a small town to mail a package that contained a book written by a family friend, a Hungarian exile living in the States. I don't remember the exact details, but sending the book from inside the country meant that it was less likely to be intercepted, or safer for the recipient. I don't remember whether the book had been banned, or was just more likely to be censored or confiscated, if it came to the attention of the state, but I do remember a strong feeling of tension at the time - we were taking a tangible risk, in sending the book. Although likely not a large risk.
Kthxbai!