Microsoft says Bing has been blocked in China

[midian182]

What just happened? While China blocks a number of western websites—Facebook, Twitter, etc.—Microsoft’s Bing was allowed through the Great Firewall thanks to its censored search results. But despite kowtowing to the government, the search engine has joined the list of inaccessible services.

“We’ve confirmed that Bing is currently inaccessible in China and are engaged to determine next steps,” said Microsoft. According to the Financial Times, state-owned telecoms company China Unicom confirmed the government ordered the block on Bing.

When Google pulled out of China in 2010 over censorship and cyberattack concerns, Bing, which censors sensitive topics such as Tiananmen Square, was left as the only major foreign search engine that could be accessed in the country.

It appears that Bing has been banned using a DNS corruption—a popular method of blocking websites in China. It means Chinese nameservers are unable to retrieve the IP address of a URL. TechCrunch notes that some people have been able to access Bing by typing in the IP address directly.

UPDATE: it's confirmed to be DNS corruption, the common method of banning websites in China pic.twitter.com/GIlYsCVa1L

— Patrick Wu (@patrick330602) 23 January 2019

The reasons behind the ban are unclear. It follows increased tensions between the US and China, from the ongoing trade war to the battle with Huawei and the arrest of its CFO.

Google had faced controversy over a possible return to China with a censored version of its search engine, known internally as Project Dragonfly. But objections from employees and US politicians led to its reported cancelation last month. It’s said to be still studying the idea, though the Bing incident may influence Google's decision.

Bing is reported to have accounted for just 2 percent of the Chinese market, way behind local search engines Baidu and Sogou, but that’s not to say Microsoft won’t feel aggrieved by the ban.

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/78413-microsoft-bing-has-blocked-china.html

 

[Uncle Al]

It's been blocked at my house too! I'm sticking with DuckDuckGo and so far it's been a gem!

 

[MilwaukeeMike]

Microsoft says Bing has been blocked in China
It's unclear why

Insert 'because bing suc*s' here joke, ha.

It's unclear though? I'd bet they weren't censoring well enough, or more likely, it's an American product that China can't tax the crap out of. Why let something be used that isn't Chinese if they aren't getting paid?

 

[HarryLemon]

"It's unclear why"!!! AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!! I just split my sides and spit my beer when I read that LOLOL!!!!

 

[senketsu]

I suspect (as I have zero way of actually knowing) that it is political.
We all know how good USA-People's Republic relations are. Canada arrested a Chinese citizen on behalf of the USA and now Canada is in conflict with China, each country shafting the other any way they can.
"Meng Wanzhou, CEO of Huawei, was arrested in Canada on 1 December 2018 at the request of the United States, which wants her extradited to face charges that she and her company misled banks about the company’s business dealings in Iran."
Nine days later, the Chinese detained Canadian ex-diplomat Michael Kovrig and Canadian entrepreneur Michael Spavor on allegations of “engaging in activities that endanger the national security” of China.
The US Justice Department said on Friday a Chinese national had been arrested for stealing trade secrets from a US-based petroleum company, his employer, related to a product worth more than $1 billion.
The department alleged Hongjin Tan downloaded hundreds of files related to the manufacture of a “research and development downstream energy market product,” which he planned to use to benefit a company in China that had offered him a job.
On and on the game of global politics goes on...…….

 

[Danny101]

Stopping all out trade with China would be best. Unfortunately, greed rules supreme. The SJW's cry foul over many things, but say pretty much nothing on China. Which leads me see them as frauds.

 

[cliffordcooley]

I've been wanting to cut ties with china for 30 years. All the cheap sh!t coming from that country. The quality of our products have dropped very significantly because of their trash imports.

 

[Kibaruk]

Stopping all out trade with China would be best,

That moment when you realize you know absolutely nothing about the modern world and it's economy.

 

[cliffordcooley]

That moment when you realize you know absolutely nothing about the modern world and it's economy.

That moment when you have absolutely no faith in yourself!

 

[Squid Surprise]

Actually, it turns out they'd blocked Bing in China a few months ago - but nobody noticed until now...

 

[Manrubio]

Stopping all out trade with China would be best,

That moment when you realize you know absolutely nothing about the modern world and it's economy.

Absolutely nothing.
cliffordcooley comment gives me a vibe of a "trump type of comment".

 

[cliffordcooley]

Absolutely nothing.
cliffordcooley comment gives me a vibe of a "trump type of comment".

Maybe so. I know for a fact there is nothing we can not make for ourselves. The only imports we may need is materials we do not have ourselves. That doesn't amount to very much. You can say what you will about my stance on the topic. Catering to China is supporting slave labor. I would be ashamed of myself for willfully supporting trade with China.

 

[Darth Shiv]

Stopping all out trade with China would be best,

That moment when you realize you know absolutely nothing about the modern world and it's economy.

It's kind of ironic when people say this. They premise this on the world moving to free trade. There is one problem you are ignoring. Free trade destroys first world manufacturing industries. One of the only major first world economies with a thriving manufacturing industry is Germany's car industry isn't it?

Answer me this... how can a first world economy not be a net importer under free trade? China, India Bangladesh etc absolutely decimate first world manufacturing because of relative wages. How can you compete when a Chinese online retailer sells USB cables for 50c INCLUDING INTERNATIONAL SHIPPING?

It just doesn't work. Look I'm heavily socialist democracy leaning. Pro-Sanders. But the left are a bunch or morons pushing free trade and NOT addressing the economic consequences. Heads in the sand. "La-la-la I don't hear you" when you ask them what they will do about exploding net imports.

Just look at Australia's exports sector. MASSIVE dependence on resources. It has been getting much MUCH worse for over a decade. We have massacred our other industries. We have all our eggs in one shitty basket which has no future. Coal is going to die soon. We'll be dependent on iron ore, uranium, lithium, oil, gas and whatever else we can scratch together. But we won't have anything outside of digging holes.

We KNOW the modern economy and we KNOW it is f&%ked.

 

[Manrubio]

Absolutely nothing.
cliffordcooley comment gives me a vibe of a "trump type of comment".

Maybe so. I know for a fact there is nothing we can not make for ourselves. The only imports we may need is materials we do not have ourselves. That doesn't amount to very much. You can say what you will about my stance on the topic. Catering to China is supporting slave labor. I would be ashamed of myself for willfully supporting trade with China.

Well, we are running a bit off topic here, we are assuming that china issued the block on Bing due to the trade war-- remember that Bing did not have a huge market in china and besides that China when it comes to internet, like to have tools of their own.

Assuming the block is due to the trade war, then:

I know for a fact there is nothing we can not make for ourselves -- That is true but it is not a question of what you can or can not do, do you picture yourself working at a manufactoring factory?

Catering to China is supporting slave labor- Sad but that is how capitalism work... Trade is not bad.. if you have a good idea, trade can help you spread it all over the place.

 

[Danny101]

That moment when you realize you know absolutely nothing about the modern world and it's economy.

There is nothing necessary about trade with China. Modern world or economy conditions are irrelevant. Only corporate and political greed sustains it. Even with China's supposed abundance of rare earths materials can be worked around. China is a slave state, yet the American Left ignores it, but still seizes upon every little perceived social slight in America is beyond hypocrisy. At least be consistent, if anything else.

 

[Danny101]

Well, we are running a bit off topic here, we are assuming that china issued the block on Bing due to the trade war-- remember that Bing did not have a huge market in china and besides that China when it comes to internet, like to have tools of their own.

Assuming the block is due to the trade war, then:

I know for a fact there is nothing we can not make for ourselves -- That is true but it is not a question of what you can or can not do, do you picture yourself working at a manufactoring factory?

Catering to China is supporting slave labor- Sad but that is how capitalism work... Trade is not bad.. if you have a good idea, trade can help you spread it all over the place.

China is simply not a good trade partner. They cheat. In America, contracts break down and lawsuits are filed between companies when this happens. Why isn't China being punished for it? Trump at least has the balls to try as oppose to all the other feckless politicians. And this is besides the point from what we might think about China in general. The question is: what is it that makes good business sense?

 

[AlienOverlord]

Been living in China for a while. Was using Bing the other night and between searches it stopped responding. Found out next day it's blocked and tried other search engines but all blocked. Despite what the article says, I'm sure I've used Yahoo and other search engines in the past 9 years. Tried using baidu search and besides all results being in Chinese, 9 out of 10 were from the same website.
Lately I've started to think China has gained all the knowledge it needs from the outside world and is planning to close itself off again.

 

[Kibaruk]

I'm baffled... mind blown! The way the modern world works is only because of the fact that things are built in China, that's why we have the access people couldn't dream for about in the 60s and 70s.

Back then the fridge people had was built in the US, but it was so freaking expensive that the same fridge you bought will be probably the one that would follow you for the following 20+ years, and if it broke it was unthinkable to get a new one, it had to be fixable. Today they are so cheap that fixing one makes no sense (I'm not talking the light bulb repair, don't hang onto petty things for your next quote please), you go out and you buy a new one for a very reasonable price.

You know why 99% things you buy are made in china? Because that keeps the cost of the product low and means your money has a bigger purchase power. It's impossible to cut China out of the modern world, when the average minimal wage per hour is of $1,50 or less, it's impossible that a country such as the US will be able to compete against with an average hourly rate of $10.

Sure I can imagine the US being able to deliver the same or better quality products, but at what price? Just imagine what would happen if the average electronic would cost only 150% as much as they are now.

I will repeat it again even if you don't like it, it's IMPOSSIBLE to cut out China and maintain the current lifestyle that we live.

 

[IAMTHESTIG]

Who cares? Bing sucks anyway.

 

[Danny101]

I'm baffled... mind blown! The way the modern world works is only because of the fact that things are built in China, that's why we have the access people couldn't dream for about in the 60s and 70s.

Back then the fridge people had was built in the US, but it was so freaking expensive that the same fridge you bought will be probably the one that would follow you for the following 20+ years, and if it broke it was unthinkable to get a new one, it had to be fixable. Today they are so cheap that fixing one makes no sense (I'm not talking the light bulb repair, don't hang onto petty things for your next quote please), you go out and you buy a new one for a very reasonable price.

You know why 99% things you buy are made in china? Because that keeps the cost of the product low and means your money has a bigger purchase power. It's impossible to cut China out of the modern world, when the average minimal wage per hour is of $1,50 or less, it's impossible that a country such as the US will be able to compete against with an average hourly rate of $10.

Sure I can imagine the US being able to deliver the same or better quality products, but at what price? Just imagine what would happen if the average electronic would cost only 150% as much as they are now.

I will repeat it again even if you don't like it, it's IMPOSSIBLE to cut out China and maintain the current lifestyle that we live.

End the Federal Reserve. That's where the inflation originates.

 

[Kibaruk]

End the Federal Reserve. That's where the inflation originates.

You are a true economist and a smart reader.

 

[m3tavision]

I'm baffled... mind blown! The way the modern world works is only because of the fact that things are built in China, that's why we have the access people couldn't dream for about in the 60s and 70s.

Back then the fridge people had was built in the US, but it was so freaking expensive that the same fridge you bought will be probably the one that would follow you for the following 20+ years, and if it broke it was unthinkable to get a new one, it had to be fixable. Today they are so cheap that fixing one makes no sense (I'm not talking the light bulb repair, don't hang onto petty things for your next quote please), you go out and you buy a new one for a very reasonable price.

You know why 99% things you buy are made in china? Because that keeps the cost of the product low and means your money has a bigger purchase power. It's impossible to cut China out of the modern world, when the average minimal wage per hour is of $1,50 or less, it's impossible that a country such as the US will be able to compete against with an average hourly rate of $10.

Sure I can imagine the US being able to deliver the same or better quality products, but at what price? Just imagine what would happen if the average electronic would cost only 150% as much as they are now.

I will repeat it again even if you don't like it, it's IMPOSSIBLE to cut out China and maintain the current lifestyle that we live.

WHAT...?

Things are made in China, because they are made 5% cheaper so the owner can make more profit, not because they are made better.

Also, not all products made, are heavily based on wages. Shipping a product could cost more than the wages it took to build it, etc. China makes and sells things cheaper than it cost to produce them, because they are being subsidized by the government, because once those products are made in china… China own that product forever. Even if you own a Patent on it.

IE: China steals your intellectual property and start making your product without your knowledge.

 

[cliffordcooley]

IE: China steals your intellectual property and start making your product without your knowledge.

Thank you for another example I didn't mention.

 

[cliffordcooley]

Techspot is trying to get me to delete my account. I think I will take this under consideration the next couple of days. I may be following davislane. Topics are getting tiresome anyway.

 

[Darth Shiv]

Techspot is trying to get me to delete my account. I think I will take this under consideration the next couple of days. I may be following davislane. Topics are getting tiresome anyway.

??? What's going on???