Chinese Censorship Easy to Bypass

China, now equaling the U.S. in Internet population, has long been criticized for censoring web content, especially political dissent. However, the Washington Times, quotes an unemployed Chinese computer game enthusiast that bypassing government controls is trivially easy:

"Official blocks on controversial or political Web sites pose no obstacle to any experienced user who wants to get past them, said Mr. Li [Shenwen]."

Mr. Li demonstrated his ability to access several blocked sites in under three minutes. Mr. Li stated the (undisclosed) techniques were well known in local Internet cafes, but said few people use them to gain access to blocked news or dissident websites:

"...they are more interested in using skills to access restricted pornography sites than to read about politics."

Chinese hackers crack Net censorship