Gmail is blocked in mainland China, which includes all parts of China except Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau. This means that once you land in China, the moment you try to open your email you'll find your computer and phone can't connect to the mail server.
Can I access Gmail in China? No. Chinese citizens and visitors to the country will not be able to access Gmail in China. A VPN is the best way to bypass censorship in China to access Gmail and Google search engine services freely.
Censorship is why. Google effectively shut down its Chinese operations after it discovered a cyberattack from within the country that targeted it and dozens of other companies. And while investigating the attack, Google found that the Gmail accounts of a number of Chinese human-rights activists had been hacked.
Google's Internet mail service, Gmail, and Chrome and Google-based search inquiries have not been available to mainland China users since 2014.
Then, when an alleged state-sponsored attack on Google servers attempted to hack the accounts of some Chinese dissidents, Google decided to end its mainland China operations entirely. In 2010, Google shut down Google.cn and instead redirected all mainland traffic to Google.com.hk, its Hong Kong search portal.
Is Spotify Blocked in China? Yes, Spotify is blocked in China. In fact, Spotify doesn't even offer its services in Mainland China at all. Many users, even if they have a premium account, report losing access to Spotify a few days after they start using it in China.
But the wildly popular platform, developed with homegrown Chinese technology, isn't accessible in China. In fact, it's never existed there. Instead, there's a different version of TikTok — a sister app called Douyin.
China. YouTube was first blocked in China for over five months from October 16, 2007 to March 22, 2008. It was blocked again from March 24, 2009, although a Foreign Ministry spokesperson would neither confirm nor deny whether YouTube had been blocked. Since then, YouTube has been inaccessible from mainland China.
The search engine is blocked along with many other Google services such as Gmail and Google Maps. Luckily, it's relatively easy to bypass the Chinese government's censorship measures; all you need is a VPN to change your virtual location.
Why is WhatsApp illegal in China? WhatsApp is owned by Facebook, which is also blocked in China. Since Facebook is unwilling to give the Chinese government permission to moderate and censor messages on WhatsApp, they blocked it. In general, the Chinese government seeks to control the information intake of its citizens.
Free personal email. Email addresses that Chinese people most commonly use are QQ email and NetEase email, while overseas users prefer email service providers like Gmail, Hotmail, and Yahoo.
China already has blocked many U.S. technology companies from operating on the mainland. Apple is an exception; it sells its products in China and heavily depends on the country for manufacturing.
Google's search engine has been blocked on the mainland since 2010, when Google stopped censoring search results following a series of China-originated cyberattacks. Since then, nearly all of Google's services have been blocked in the country, including the Google Play app store.
Baidu is China's largest and most widely used search engine, much like Google in the U.S.
If you are sending email to China, it will be subjected to stricter email filtering than any other country in the world. This could result in email delays, delivered emails with unclickable links, or flat-out non-deliverability. Making sure your marketing emails to China are delivered is crucial.
Officially, the Chinese government has banned the use of VPNs not approved by the government: VPNs must provide the government backdoor access to be approved, which renders them unsecure. However, this law applies to companies and corporations rather than individuals.
Is Zoom blocked in China? No, Zoom is not blocked in China anymore.
Youtube, which is owned by Google, allows users to access videos created by users from around the world. This presents a threat to the Chinese government, which tends toward blocking any content that may be critical of the Communist regime, or which may support ideas that promote democracy in China.
Summary on Using Web Browsers in China
Baidu, 360, UC Browser, and QQ Browser are the most commonly used Chinese browsers. Google Chrome, Firefox, Microsoft Edge, and Safari are also prevalent web browsers in China, with a very significant market share.
It's possible to access the Netflix website in China, but there will be no library of content for you to view. Netflix is available in more than 200 countries. However, the Chinese market is extremely difficult to crack, mainly due to strict regulations imposed by the government.
Fact: TikTok, which is not available in mainland China, has established Los Angeles and Singapore as headquarters locations to meet its business needs. That is in keeping with ByteDance's approach to aligning business needs to the markets where its services operate. ByteDance does not have a single global headquarters.
Chinese Social Media FAQs
However, these sites are banned in China. Instead, the social media sites Chinese use are WeChat, Sina Weibo, Tencent QQ, Tencent Video, Xiao HongShu, Douban, Zhihu, Meituan, Toutiao, and DouYin (TikTok). What is the most popular social media in China?
China is one of the few countries that have blocked Snapchat and as a result, China users are unable to access Snapchat. To unblock Snapchat in China, you will need a VPN that works inside the country.
Facebook is just one of the sites and social media platforms banned by the Chinese government. China controls the content that goes on the internet. As such, it makes decisions on what sites are allowed. Any content that the government considers against the state is banned, deleted, or restricted.
The majority of Western social media platforms are blocked in China, including Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, YouTube, TikTok and many others. In China, there are multiple local social media platforms. The most popular one are WeChat and XiaoHongShu.