The government of China has created new obstacles for the consumers of the email service known as Gmail. This is in the wake of a massive strategy to secure the Internet in China. Over the past month there have been changes to prohibit access to accounts related to Google applications.

The hurdles put in place to prevent users in China from being allowed access to their Google mail accounts, have extended to third party accounts such as Outlook by Microsoft and even Apple Mail. Chinese natives and outsiders have depended on these types of indirect ways of checking their email, in spite of the previous barrier placed by the Chinese government. These new barriers have created a backlash that has resulted in the percentage of Gmail users originating from China dropping to zero.

These prohibitions have not only affected the everyday user, but have had an influence on virtually all who do any sort of business in China. The only way companies can communicate to and from this country are through virtual private networks (VPNs). The traffic can exist through the private networks, therefore avoiding the Chinese censorship, they have also been met with interruption.

Getting Google ads out to international buyers has created concern within China. Basic operations have slowed for foreign corporations which use Gmail for their primary business email. It has become mandatory for employees that work for these companies to have VPNs in order to access their Gmail accounts.

Issues surrounding China and Google started in early 2010 when Google closed their servers in the mainland to evade China’s strict censorship. The company began to redirect the traffic through servers in Hong Kong, before the Chinese government started blocking those servers as well. Google’s strategy of using the “http” in the beginning of the address made it difficult for the China’s censorship to eliminate, shortly after Google switching their tactics, the Chinese government chooses to deny any access to the website.

China has become slightly more lenient on allowing some traffic through on a daily basis: they even take down the blocks altogether for a few hours once a month. This level of control, consumers say, constitutes a lack of service on the Google side, rather than China’s blockage.

Google is not the only company being singled out from China. They are also dismissing numerous United States based Internet companies. Facebook has been restricted along with Instagram, under the Internet censorship. The Android store connected to Google has very limited access in China. Even LinkedIn agreed to block material which was going to be viewed by the people of China.

There are two key factors which can account for these harsh restrictions on China’s Internet. First are the recent concerns over domestic terrorism after the assaults on various train stations. Nationalism aimed at Japan and Japan’s allies, such as the United States, are among the other driving force behind the limitations.