China has blocked a number of websites before, for a variety of reasons, but observers believe that last week marked the first time that an entire country has been blocked by the “Great Firewall”.
According to reports on Yahoo Japan, sites with a “co.jp” top domain were blocked for around a day and a half over June 15 and 16.
China and Japan enjoy a bitter regional rivalry of course, but quite why the co.jp domain was blocked remains a mystery. Tech blogger William Long has pointed out Japanese sites with “.com” and “.jp” domains had not been blocked, perhaps implying that the move was simply a mistake.
Of course, this being China, there’s also a much more fun, conspiratorial theory. And of course, it involves the incredible scandal of ousted Chongqing party boss Bo Xilai.
Multiple Weibo users have pointed towards the possible interference of “Headmaster Fang” — the un complementary nickname for Fang Binxing, the man behind China’s incredible online censorship project
Jimmy at Tea Leaf Nation has put together a great summary of the crazy “Headmaster Fang” theory.
Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/china-japan-blocked-bo-xilai-2012-6#ixzz1yF3FEHGM
