Before I left China I learned that a few of my fellow travelers were downloading VPN aps to get around the Great China Firewall. I might have considered it if I’d heard about the workaround before leaving for China but not just a couple days before leaving.
On my flight home I read a story in one of the official Chinese newspapers about Apple agreeing to pull their VPN aps out of the Chinese market. I was of two minds about this. On the one hand I realized that I couldn’t make use of Google because they had refused to comply with restraints on their services. I hated to see Apple pulled as well in its entirety only to be replaced by some neutered Chinese analogue.
Today NPR has a story today about this and its implications.
