The BBC Is Appearing On Chinese Computers

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The BBC is now appearing on Chinese computers. Chinese authorities often block news sites but the BBC has worked a deal with China to allow citizens of Beijing read international news.

A huge firewall still remains in effect though for Chinese language services on the website and any links in Chinese.

Beijing has never admitted to actually blocking the BBC. There is still no confirmation that the site is actually unblocked in the communist country.

When Chinese users in the past have tried to access the BBC site they get an error message saying that the connection has been reset.

We want BBC News to be as accessible in China as anywhere else in the world,” he said.

“We will endeavour to continue working with the Chinese authorities to improve our access in other areas.”

Stats have shown that the site is being viewed heavily on Tuesday. The average Chinese hits for the BBC is under 100 a day but on Tuesday it reached to more than 16,000.

The largest indiciator though that the Chinese people have been reading the news is the comments flooding the BBC forum from all over China.

Ross Brown in Qingdao, Shandong province, wrote: “We were just discussing with some of our Chinese colleagues about the fact BBC website was blocked, went on to show them and we see this latest news. Excellent news.”

This is good news for outside media when it comes to China. The nation has promised foreign journalists more freedom during the upcoming Olympic Games this summer.

The unrest in Tibet though has made many skeptical if China will honestly allow journalists to report the truth while covering the Games.

This week the Chinese government arranged for foreign media to tour Tibet but the BBC was denied their request to attend.

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