Google accuses China of blocking Gmail

BEIJING, March 21 (UPI) -- Google says its Gmail is being disrupted in China and blames jamming by the government.

Computer users in China told the Voice of America they've had trouble accessing their Gmail accounts recently. Some have been blocked completely.

Google said it has no technical problems and the disruption is "government blockage, carefully designed to look like the problem is with Gmail."

Mark Natkin of Marbridge Consulting agrees, saying, "The service seems to be working fine outside China. We have talked to individuals located immediately outside of mainland China, all of whom have reported that their Gmail service is working without disruption. So, it seems that it is almost certainly something that the authorities ... are doing."

Like many others, he suspects the jamming is intended to limit Chinese knowledge of events in the Middle East.

Chinese blogs have blocked searches for words like "Jasmine," following calls from abroad for Chinese to stage their own "Jasmine revolution," as in Tunisia.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry has not responded to questions on the matter.

Last year, Google withdrew its China-based, Chinese-language search engine to Hong Kong, which operates under different rules than mainland China, because of cyberattacks and censorship fears.