China Law Blog

Looks like you found the person in Cambodia who's reporting that things are OK from his vantage point in Phnom Penh:

http://jungle-bar.blogspot.com/2006/12/taiwan-quake-misc-news.html

However, I tracked down this message from this internet service provider in Cambodia, OnlineCom:

http://www.online.com.kh/

Dear Users,

Due to Earthquake near Taiwan on 26 Decomber 2006, many under sea cables were damaged. Due to this internet access to many parts of Asia from Cambodia is slow. We regret the inconvenience caused to you.
In the mean time we are trying the best to make internet connectivity as normal as possible.

Regards
Online Team.

I'm based in shenzhen.The internet access here was shaky the day after the impact day.But now everything is back to normal,running pretty neatly.Though it's still kinda slow to access some of the US sites,like one of my favorite haunts- Freakonomics Blog.Overall it's like normal.

Mr. Vielmetti --

Thanks for checking in. Good find. You are absolutely right. I read that post and then could not find it again when I did mine, but thanks to you I can now link back to it.

Dane --

Thanks for checking in. Yea, things are probably back to normal in Shanghai too, just Steve's excuse for going out to the mountains. I love the Freakonimcs site (and book) too.

Everything is going normal for me in Beijing, except that I've had a little trouble getting to New Zealand websites. I'm using China Unicom's wireless service, and this is the first time I've been glad I installed it. I read a comment on Danwei by someone in Beijing who had basically no international internet through China Netcom.

chriswaugh --

Thanks for checking in. That's interesting (but makes sense) that the provider would matter. I'm thinking that those who have US e-mail addresses are having a particularly rough go of things in China right now because they cannot get their e-mail.

Malaysia is also spotty. Can I make a suggestion?
http://www.internettrafficreport.com/asia.htm

According to their current statistics Tokyo is back up to normal, as is Taiwan. Narita is a short flight from Shanghai.

Does Steve like saki?

THE admiral --

Thanks for checking in and thanks for the Malaysia report. I am quite certain Steve likes saki. Steve actually practiced law in Japan for a few years many moons ago. Also, since he is the only caucasian I know who truly likes baijiu, I cannot imagine that he would not like something that actually tastes better than gasoline.

But Malaysia is a lot cheaper.

Well, I have a bit of objection to the title. China's Internet is not down. It's Internet to China that's broken. No problem accessing domestic sites in China from China. Also Google is hosted in Acer data center in Taiwan and Google services are not down because the quake affect only the transpacific cable but not the cross strait ones.

The telecom boom in the 90s along with Taiwanese government's ambitions to become tech hub in Asia have made heavy investment in underwater cable from US to Taiwan and fan out from there to the rest of Asia. Taiwan becomes an important node in Asia's global internet connectivity. Kind of bad idea to put an important node on the earth quake prone island but corporate greed with government subsidies trump rationalities anytime. ;)

The quake comes in good time for the group trying to build a direct underwater fiber from US to China.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/19/technology/19cable.html?ex=1324184400&en=b5cea0bd2b8ec6cc&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss

Anyway, happy to report that we are back to the civilization here in Shanghai. Most of the US sites are accessible except problem with Yahoo mail. :(

A direct US/China fiber link would be nothing but an arena for sword fighting between the US DOD and the PLA cyberwar units. There would be no secure communications along this link.

Hey Dan,

Just wanted to let you know that in Beijing the internet situation is horrible. I'm a web designer with clients within and outside of China, and my ability to work is almost entirely shot at this point.

I've managed to find a retaurant- Peter's Tex-Mex, oddly enough- with a great connection and have been working from here. I'm assuming it's because of the surrounding upscale hotels. I wouldn't doubt there's a major hub right here.

Everywhere else I've been around the city the internet is nigh-on useless, unless you're only interested in Chinese websites.

Dan, Korea is working great and has been for years and years.

Mr. Li --

That direct cable is probably looking pretty good right now.

nanheyangrouchuan --

Are there secure communications anywhere?

Mr. Bermel --

Thanks for checking in. Peter's Tex-Mex. Um. Never been there. I have a cingular wireless card in my notebook and my partner's cingular blackberry has been working fine in China. I'm guessing this means if I were there, I'd be fully operational, right?

Brendan --

Korea must not be on the Taiwan cable. Does it have its own?

Thanks for the link, Dan! I've added to my post with another one today at: http://cartegic.typepad.com/mapping_strategy/2006/12/fallacies_of_te.html

Having worked for 2+ years in NYC helping fix the financial industry's network resilience problems (that became evident on 9-11) this feels like "deja vu all over again". Now would be a very good time for your Asian clients to start looking HARD at the fine print in their telecoms agreements, particularly the provisions concerning the providers' rights for inter-carrier grooming and the (most likely) absent or extremely weak provisions assuring physical path diversity. They may be surprised at what they discover.

Art --

I read your most recent most and very much liked that one too. What is a smaller company in a place like Shanghai to do? If you are a huge company, you can write your own internet contract, but if you are small, it is pretty much take it or leave it, right?

Seems things are going back to normal! I had a rough time for the past 5 days to have access to internet except with gmail (why gmail is ok?). Now, everything looks ok. As a proof, I can read and comment on China Law Blog. It was a real domino effect, we all shall think that if tomorrow there would be a war in Asia how easy it would be to disrupt the communications!

I am barely on the web now...Your site has been 50 minutes in loading....It, like everyone else, should be fully loaded by midnight....

Hmm...I can only get Chinese news and Chinese websites...Wait, that sounds normal, doesn't it? It IS very rough here...

I hope to be posting again in a day or two as it seems to be geting a bit better...

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Well, before we concern about the war in China to break Internet again, there is a more pressing issues: "Network neutrality." In the nutshell, should network carriers be able to gauge whatever they want for net access? Art's article is excellent on how physical infrastructure is more important then the theoretical resilience of the Internet. Once the carriers get the upper hand in the fight, smaller information providers like China Law Blog will suffer.

Mr. Guerel --

I think Google has fared so well because it has everything in China. Glad to have you back up and reading the blog.

Lon --

Nice to hear you are willing to wait 50 minutes to read this. Sorry about your inability to post, but I can tell you that my readership over the last few days is at about half of normal, which is, I think, due both to the internet problems in Asia and to the time of year.

HAPPY NEW YEAR to you too!

Mr. Li --

Interesting issues. I know very little about network neutrality issues in Asia, but a surprisingly large amount about them here in the US because I started out as an antitrust lawyer, many, many, many, years ago. The US is very concerned with these issues and I do not see the US ever veering too far from neutrality. What about in China? This blog is through Typepad, wouldn't that matter?

Well, the heart of the current network neutrality is about the bottom line of teleco vs internet companies. If the law favor teleco, they will be able to create premium route on their network and leave the not paying customers on the slower route. Without law protecting network neutrality, teleco can legally let the slower route ruin prohibiting people from accessing to blog until the bloggers are willing to pay big bucks to hop on the premium route. Any change in the legislation could mean shifting of tens and hundreds of millions between the two camps.

Small providers are likely to suffer. Typepad Pro charges $145 a year because telecos can't do that or it could go up to $1,450 a month. Who knows? With Ma Bell and families already start to compete with local TV station in providing content, individual providers are going to be get hurt caught in crossfire.

I don't think network neutrality to be an issues in China anytime soon. One good thing about nationalized telecos are they screw everyone the equal amount just like governments. ;) Well, the government will likely to scarify telecos to win public support. The government has ordered China Mobile to honor expired prepay minutes last year because public outrage on those minutes ever expired even though the expiration is clearly stated on the cards. Hard to really make network neutrality into a issue while the public mindset is still "I buy it, I OWN it until I use it."

However, even though the issue itself isn't likely to be a policy concern, the fights among the Chinese telecos are ugly. Netcom and China telecom were supposed to stay out of each other territories according to the central government but the two have been defying government orders to acquire assets in others' turf. In some areas, the competition got so bad, physical lines were sabotaged to disrupt competitors' service. With teleco services to be open for foreign competitions in 2007, we will see a big outbreak of a big price war.

It's ironic looking at this issue from teleco's perspective. The US teleco are lobbying the government to help them compete while the Chinese telecos are defying the government to compete in the market. Hmm... ;-)

Thanks for checking in. I wish I knew enough even to respond. I do like your noting the irony of Chinese telcos seeking to compete. I do like how in China (in the cell phone and in the auto industry, of which I am aware) Chinese companies ignore government strictures and go forward with their business anyway. Eventually the government has no choice but to ratify. In fact, that is true to a certain extent with many of China's business laws. Some of China's business laws (best example is parts of the new company law) get enacted to reflect/ratify what has already occurred due in large part to gaps in the law.

Dan,
Just a note from an American living in Zhengzhou, Henan Province. This Internet breakdown is killing me here. It works ok inside China, but to USA is VERY slow if at all. It's an on and off again thing. No one seems to know when it will be fixed. I heard estimates between last week and "no idea".

Joseph --

Thanks for checking in. I thought the internet was already pretty much back up, but a minute ago I got an e-mail from our Shanghai office saying the internet has been intermittent and the word is that it will not be completely fixed until February.

If it makes you feel any better (and I know it won't) that indefinite date thing is becoming fairly common over here in the US as well.

They sure do stare at me here. I'm a big guy, 6'2" 325lb. I fit a few strange catagories here. First, there are not many foreigners here in Zhengzhou. When I got here last July it was about 4 weeks before I saw any at all. Beijing, Shanghai, etc., have many. Not so here. I'm stared at for being foreign and being so big. Nothing like it here. There are NO clothes at all that fit me here, not even shoes. I wear only 10 1/2 Wide, but that's about a size 48 in local size. Noone here bigger then 45 and that is big. I feel like Shaq trying to buy sneakers in Walmart. I have been followed many times, some times on the street and some times inside a store, just staring. If I stop to watch locals talking or playing cards on the street a few people gather and more then once someone tried to see if his arms would go all the way around me. I draw the line at that. At first it was real embarassing but they are not doing it from meaness, just curiosity. They are all quite friendly. You think my blog is long? How many pages have you read? It's up to 13 now. I like this place a lot. I know I'll stay a number of years, maybe even longer.

Joseph --

Thanks for checking in.

I was in Korea during the Asian crisis, during which time, its finest department store, The Lotte, put all shoes and clothes on sale at half off. Adding in the plunge of the Won and it meant that everything was about 1/3 to 1/2 as expensive as the states. It was incredible. Only problem was that nothing fit me. Nothing. I wanted to get shoes for my wife and bring them back but her feet were too big for everything in the store also.

But you're in China now, so you can get your clothes custom.

Hey could you please tell me if the internet is still down in China...as of Jan 19 2007

In the town of Hefei is the place I am concern about right now.
Thanks