Gmail goes dark in China as censors squeeze Google

Six months after Gmail was first blocked in China, it appears the country’s censors have taken additional steps to obstruct all the ways users had found to circumvent the country’s Great Firewall to use Google’s email service.

Following the ban, users had still been able to access Gmail accounts through third-party clients like Apple’s Mail or Microsoft’s Outlook. However, on Friday, traffic from China to Gmail came to a halt, according to the Wall Street Journal.

The Journal quoted Google spokesman Taj Meadows as saying “there’s nothing wrong on our end.”

Google saw many of its services, including Gmail, Google+, and Drive, blocked back in June in advance of the 25th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square pro-democracy protests.

According to Reuters, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said today that the government was not aware of additional measures being taken against Gmail. But she said China in general remains supportive of foreign countries doing business there.

“China has consistently had a welcoming and supportive attitude towards foreign investors doing legitimate business here,” she said, according to Reuters. “We will, as always, provide an open, transparent and good environment for foreign companies in China.”