China appears to have blocked access to Gmail. The authorities have not given a reason for the blockade. Google’s services in China have been struggling with accessibility problems for some time.
A Google spokesperson in Singapore confirmed that the unavailability of Gmail was not due to technical defects. Although the Chinese government appears to have made the e-mail service inaccessible, a spokesperson for the authorities said that they were not aware of a blockade.
Google’s own Transparency Report shows that there is hardly any Gmail traffic in China. Based on the data, the block appears to have been in place since Friday: Internet traffic to and from the Gmail servers has fallen sharply since then.
Google has been at odds with the Chinese authorities for some time. Often Google’s services are blocked in the firewall that China uses to filter the internet. Incidentally, other foreign technology companies are also faced with blockades of their services. Facebook daughter Instagram was recently blocked, presumably because of the protests in Hong Kong.