China's Great Firewall tougher hurdle as popular VPN shuts down

Beijing

GETTING around the Great Firewall, the system used by China to control Internet access, just got harder with a popular virtual private network forced to cease operating on orders from the government.

GreenVPN sent a notice to customers that it would stop service from July 1 after "receiving a notice from regulatory departments," without elaborating on those demands. VPNs work by routing Internet traffic to servers in another location, such as the US, that is beyond the reach of Chinese filters.