Can you read me in China?

A former reader from China e-mails me saying that he can no longer access my blog. I wonder if that is a general problem. If you live in China and have been able to read this blog recently, can you kindly post a short comment or send me an e-mail?

UPDATE: Don confirms that this blog is not accessible in China.  Now I am wondering if it is just me or all typepad sites.  Any help with this?

Comments

[Gabriel]

Not free market enough for the communist party, I suppose... :-)

[iafliu]

It seems that People in China and other oppressive regimes are increasingly using softwares like "Tor" or "Gpass" to break the official block of the Internet.

If you can read Chinese, see http://gate.tycool.com:82/gate/big5/www.tycool.com/bbs/showthread.php?t=144549&page=1&pp=10

[BrotherMaynard]

"Mao!" (slap)

(Deerhunter)

[Sean]

The Chinese government, after decidedly liberating Tibet from the oppressive rule of Tibetans, has wisely chosen to restrict the Western propaganda that plants harmful ideas in the minds of the people.
Harmful ideas such as free speech, democracy, and individual action. And free markets.

[Minivet]

Sean: Chinese are fine with free markets now, and even free speech to the extent that it's not political. (Lolcats yes, Tibet no.) Catch up on your slogans.

Dani: It could be a blocking of Typepad as a whole, not just you. I think that happens from time to time.

[terence]

you used to be able to test if your blog was being blocked by the chinese govt's firewall at this site:
http://www.greatfirewallofchina.org/
It seems to be broken at present but may be running again soon.

[Don]

I'm afraid you're blocked in China (at least as of 7:15 pm EDT on March 15, when I tried it here in Beijing). There are, of course, ways around the Great Firewall, one of which I'm using, in case anyone's wondering how I could read and post a message to a blocked blog.

[Swarnim]

Dani, I was in China from January 3 to February 5 this year. I can confirm that your blog was not accessible during that period. Neither was Greg Mankiw's.

My suspicion is they might have blocked a whole class of blogs, instead of just "typepad" users.

[Asif Dowla]

A prospective student from China wanted to know how can he learn about how economists think. I suggested he read Mankiw, Tyler and your blog. He informed me that Mankiw and your blog is blocked in China.

[Enno]

The Chinese government not only blocks websites as a whole, such as Wikipedia, but also is able to block single pages (say on NYT) that contain certain key words. The list of key words is updated permanently. The best description of how the "great firewall" works is to be found in an article named "Penetrating the Great Firewall" by James Fallows.
Link:
http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/print/200803/chinese-firewall

[Enno]

Your blog is not accessible from China. I get access only through a proxy server. But you don't get credit for being censored ;-). In fact, all Typepad, Wordpress, Blogger blogs are blocked.
schroedda.wordpress.com

[Qingdao]

you are definitely blocked here.

[david]

Dani,

If governemnts are wise enough to regulate the flow of capital and trade, then aren't they also wise enough to regulate the flow of information?

David

[david]

Dani,

If governemnts are wise enough to regulate the flow of capital and trade, then aren't they also wise enough to regulate the flow of information?

David

[david]

Dani -

Look at it this way. If China allows its citizens to view your blog, then there are both winners an losers. People who would reads your blog are winners, but Chinese blogger and other producers of information are losers.

So China has the right right to block your blog, just as it has the right to regulate commerce and capital flows for the same reasons, by your logic anyways.

David

[Dani Rodrik]

David --

The Chinese government is a lot smarter than that. If they were motivated by the objective of nurturing their local bloggers, they wouldn't block me out. They would require me to collaborate with a local blogger as a condition for accessing Chinese readers.

[Joseph Becker]

The soft hand of a gentle government protecting it's wonderful people from foreign unfair competition has finally gotten that dani rodrik fellow!

[Adam]

Here is the link to Tor, which will get you into Dani's blog and every other blocked website: http://www.torproject.org/

[pat toche]

Well, you're still here in Hong Kong (19 March), but I hear from friends that CNN has been banned in the mainland (a black screen), because of the Tibet incidents, so it could be part of this censorship: Does your blog contain the word "Tibet" somewhere? It probably doesn't take a great deal more than that...

[Michael W. Kruse]

I read your post ten days ago and have since been checking my stats (I have a typepad account.) I haven't paid much attention lately but I used to get a handful of hits from China each week. Except for three for four from Hong Kong, I've had zero in the last month.

Maybe I shouldn't link your blog. :)

[Michael W. Kruse]

A friend of mine sent me the following note:

"Yes, it seems that all of typepad is currently blocked, as are some other sites.

Here is a website that allows you to test access in various places in China:
http://www.websitepulse.com/help/testtools.china-test.html

Here's an article from ArsTechnica about how well the blocking works:
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080317-great-firewall-of-china-expands-as-tibetan-riots-continue.html"

I tested your site and it failed as did mine.