For the past two weeks I have been unable to view The China Gate, nor has anyone else in Mainland China with non-proxy server Internet access. I had hoped against hope that it was some sort of a computer glitch, but eventually had to face the fact that my site was being blocked by what is sometimes called The Great Firewall of China. Internet censorship is a spectral policy, officially unacknowledged by the government and practiced, so it is commonly thought, to keep unwanted foreign information from being disseminated within the country. Some readers may be thinking that perhaps, if the government hasn’t acknowledged it, then the firewall might not really exist. You are entitled to your opinions. But I still can’t get into my site, nor can I get into ninety-nine percent of the other Blogger sites that I’ve tried viewing. Blogger, it turns out, is owned by Google which, from what I can gather from my limited online information, has visions of dollar signs dancing in its head over China but is undergoing a crisis of conscience regarding the PRC’s demands for access to the confidential information of its users. As this plays itself out, Blogger seems to have become some sort of example. Apparently blocked in China since at least 2002, it became available in October of 2005 only to be blocked again that December. This was its status when I set up The China Gate in January of 2006 while back in Boston, although I didn’t realize that there was a problem until I returned to Nanjing that February and couldn’t get in. Although I was able to post entries, I was unable to respond to comments and to see my finished work, two aspects of blogging that I find extremely fulfilling. Consequently, my blog suffered and eventually faded away. It wasn’t until September when, almost as an afterthought, I clicked on the site’s URL address and got in. Sometime between the spring and the fall some agreement must have been worked out between Google and the Chinese government and Blogger was put back online. I honestly didn’t care; I was just happy to have the chance to finally try out my idea in the way that I had envisioned it. And then, two weeks ago, it was blocked again. At first, I was angry, a far too common emotion for me lately, but as the days have passed, I have become more philosophical. I enjoyed the access while I had it and will try to go on with my entries now that I don’t. And maybe, someday soon, I’ll be able to get in again. But as my anger has turned to resignation, I have also tried to fit this in with China’s experience in the world and have been depressed by what I see. In telling some of my Chinese friends that my site was being blocked by the government, many of them thought that I was joking. Even after I’d made it clear that I wasn’t, they still couldn’t take what I’d said seriously, blaming the blockage on technical difficulties, or the fact that my server is based outside of China. And for each one that I spoke to who had no idea what I was talking about, most of them university students or graduates, I thought to myself that censorship does work. Here are some of China’s best and brightest. And they are oblivious. And am I any better? I am aware and because of this can already feel my enthusiasm waning. As history repeats itself, I feel even worse. Throughout China’s dealings with foreigners, it has taken an uncompromising, arrogant, xenophobic attitude, manifesting itself in any number of ways, whether it be in emissaries banging their heads off of the floor in front of the emperor’s empty throne, traders and missionaries being quarantined in Guanzhou, or a wall that can still be seen from outer space being built to keep people out. Nothing has changed. And judging by China’s tragic history with outsiders, I would have to say that this does not bode well for it.