A day after our MIS seminar on the Ecommerce topic, I was in Hang Zhou for my holidays. You may think I am crazy if I bring along with my notebook and update my blog while having my holidays. Yes, but merely not for this course. I never travel without my notebook.
“Travelling in China with notebook connected on the net” is an extremely dangerous thing. Yes, it is still a truth. Usually, I only get my network card plugged when I need it. I used SSLVPN on top of hotel’s internet connection. I never left any critical/business related information in my notebook. That is my normal practice.
Am I over concerned? Well ...
You may say “No Surprise” to find the website of “Hong Kong Jockey Club” being blocked in China simply because it is a gambling site. How about Macauslot.com? I can access it freely when I am in China. Why?
Furthermore, you may be very surprised to find that you can access yahoo.com but NOT hk.yahoo.com. You even can’t use the dictionary function in hk.yahoo.com. If you are naïve enough to think that you can start your e-business in greater China on top of HK Yahoo’s shopping mall, then you are really making some BIG.
Xanga? No way. You can’t access it.
NOT A SECRET. My company did spend money in the past 3 years to monitor if our domain names were being blocked by China or local authorities in China. We learnt that some of our competitors experienced sort of blocking in terms of months, days or hours of time. The reasons behind may be varied a lot and can be very complex. Political, economical, social are the most common ones. However, most of them may be related to GuanXi. Especially, if your e-business is in certain way touching grey areas (unclear in laws and uncertain in law enforcement), you have to be very cautious and careful in handling them; otherwise, you may find your company suddenly being fined heavily for one day.
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