I live in Shanghai, China’s international financial capital. Today at the office I needed to visit the Morgan Stanley Capital International (MSCI) website, one of the leading international stock indicies.
I couldn’t access it. So I ran a test from a Shanghai-based virtual trace route site. The results are contained on the image on the left. A trace on this site, which is accessible in China, is on the right (click either image to enlarge).
For MSCI, the connection failed at the ChinaNet backbone server. This is the same result that you get when you enter the URL for banned blogs, such as RConversation, or blocked news sites, such as the BBC. Right now, I’m assuming that MSCI is blocked in Shanghai.
I can’t say whether this is a deliberate blockage or an accident, but I will say that this is a frequent event in China. Sites that ‘the party’ would likely find innocuous are often inaccessible - either due to the Great Firewall or related stresses that the filtering system puts on connectivity.
I’m in China’s financial capital and I cannot access a relatively important financial website without using a proxy.
There are people who argue that Shanghai will soon overtake Hong Kong. It may eventually do so. But it won’t be anytime soon. Censorship - of publications as well as the Internet - is part of the reason why.
Mainland China lacks the openess and transparency that a real financial center needs. So long as the CPP remains fearful of freedom, Hong Kong’s future is secure.
August 19th, 2005 at 2:37 pm
Daily linklets 19th August
Academic corruption is hurting China. As opposed to all the other kinds, which are really hurting. Or the Great Firewall, which is really really hurting China. In more important science news, Chinese experts say there are no such thing as “lake monste…
August 20th, 2005 at 2:27 am
Tracing apparent Web censorship in China
An blogger in Shanghai can’t access a Morgan Stanley Website, and traces the blockage.
August 20th, 2005 at 2:29 am
Tracing apparent Web censorship in China
An blogger in Shanghai can’t access a Morgan Stanley Website, and traces the blockage.
August 20th, 2005 at 12:25 pm
Self-inflicted wounds
An interesting piece this week on the AsiaPundit blog about how China is hurting itself with Internet censorship. This points to the direct business issues involved rather than the somewhat less tangible - although no less important - civil liberties…
August 22nd, 2005 at 7:40 am
The Great Firewall of China
The asiapundit talks about internet blocking in Shaghai at https://asiapundit.com/2005/08/how_the_firewal.html. It seems that the Great Firewall of China has blocked Morgan Stanley’s site. The link also provides a website that has a tracer program s…
August 22nd, 2005 at 7:41 am
Future of Media in Hong Kong
The asiapundit talks about internet blocking in Shaghai at https://asiapundit.com/2005/08/how_the_firewal.html. It seems that the Great Firewall of China has blocked Morgan Stanley’s site. The link also provides a website that has a tracer program s…