DISPENCE

With no gchat maybe I'll actually get some work done.

I knew something was up. I haven’t been able to use Google’s gmail gchat for weeks. And that’s only after my gmail account finally loads. I can’t remember the last time it loaded after my first click on the bookmark.

Google, it turns out, is accusing China of messing round with gmail.

According to the search giant, Chinese customers and advertisers have increasingly been complaining about their Gmail service in the past month. Attempts by users to send messages, mark messages as unread and use other services have generated problems for Gmail customers.

“Relating to Google there is no issue on our side. We have checked extensively. This is a government blockage carefully designed to look like the problem is with Gmail,” said a Google spokesman.

This, of course, is a result of the demonstrations here in February where several activists were arrested. China will do anything and everything it can do to make it harder to communicate online (and organize gatherings).

The best part about the accusation by Google is that it says China’s interference is “very, very sophisticated.” Now we’re talking the stuff of movies. Google says China’s hacking comes and goes, is “semi-industrial,” and makes it look like there’s really just a problem with Google itself.

It’s widely believed that China has hacked its way into various US agencies and companies. Google has already basically given up on the place. It’s rerouted google.cn traffic to its Hong Kong site and left the Mainland, setting up shop on the island.

Good thing I have my trusty VPN so I can still tweet and use that silly social networking site.