Gmail service sees partial restoration in China

It appears that Gmail service has been partially restored in China. It was reported yesterday that the Chinese government was blocking access to the service through third-party apps, while the Gmail website has been blocked for years. While many are reporting that service has been restored, others are still experiencing delays or outages.

From the Financial Times:

The episode ended as mysteriously as it began — users of Gmail via POP and Imap servers, who had been frustrated for days trying to send and receive email, suddenly saw their inboxes full again, though some were still reporting delays in receiving emails and others said that their service had not returned.

According to Google's Transparency Report, Gmail traffic in China has experienced a small but noticeable uptick since this morning. Today's rise in traffic is the first noticeable movement since the outage began a few days ago.

Source: Financial Times

China blocks access to Gmail through apps

Access to the Gmail website has been blocked for some time in China, but now the Chinese government is also blocking access to Gmail through apps. The block affects not just the official Gmail apps, but also accessing Gmail through third-party apps.

Said Google in a statement:

"We've checked and there's nothing wrong on our end."

Traffic to Gmail from China, according to Google's Transparency Report has plummeted to next to nothing, indicating that there are still some Chinese users that have managed to circumvent the block by using a VPN, but most are currently out of luck. Gmail joins Google Search and Google Maps in being blocked by Chinese authorities, as well as Facebook.