Beijing tightens its internet access restrictions during the annual session of parliament

Chinese web never more controlled. China this week strengthened its control over the internet, and particularly foreign sites, during a key political meeting in Beijing, a service provider told AFP, allowing censorship to be circumvented.

The country already closely monitors its media and Internet, subject to censorship of content that casts state policies in a bad light or is likely to cause unrest. Many sites (Google, YouTube, etc.), applications and foreign social networks (X, Instagram, Facebook, etc.) are therefore inaccessible without IT tools to prevent censorship (VPN).

Temporarily broken VPN

Restrictions are usually tightened around sensitive dates and events. This week’s annual session of parliament in Beijing is no exception. On the occasion, “censorship is intensifying” online and certain tools to prevent it “don’t work”, Astrill, a VPN provider popular among foreigners living in France, told AFP from Saturday to Sunday night.

“We are working hard to normalize all services,” assured Estril, a company registered in Liechtenstein. Using a VPN or any other tool to access restricted websites without official permission is illegal in China. Some state media personnel and Chinese diplomats use VPNs to publish, particularly on social network X (formerly Twitter), which is blocked in China.

The parliamentary session started last Monday and China is making sure during this period that no grain of sand comes to stop this political ritual. Police officers and volunteers have been called in especially to strengthen the streets of the Chinese capital where investigations are more frequent than usual.

Contrary to a tradition well established over three decades, Premier Li Qiang will not hold a press conference at the end of the parliamentary session this year. These meetings are usually specially scrutinized by the foreign press to ascertain the state of mind of the person responsible for economic policy. Any keyword (hashtag) on ​​the topic was blocked this week on Weibo, the Chinese equivalent of X’s social network.