June 06, 2006 - DynaWeb Pierces CCP's Blockade in Time for Tiananmen Massacre Anniversary

On June 1, 2006, DynaWeb (Dongtaiwang), an Internet server that provides uncensored information on pro-democracy and other websites to Mainland China, was restored after being briefly blocked by the CCP.

DynaWeb's CEO Bill Xia told The Epoch Times that the scale of this most recent round of censorship by the Chinese Communist regime was the worst in years. Approximately 100,000 users in several regions in China were affected. The website has now been restored, and a new version will be unveiled soon.

Technological Disadvantage Affected About 100,000 People

Mr. Xia said that since May 24, the Chinese Communist Party devoted tremendous technological strength and computer resources into blocking DynaWeb. DynaWeb was one step behind, resulting in some software programs being affected. DynaWeb was blocked for several days in some regions, and approximately 100,000 users lost the ability to access the Internet uncensored.

After the incident, DynaWeb published emergency software for temporary use. Now the website is restored and the visitors are back. To prevent similar problems in the future, DynaWeb will unveil an updated version soon.

Users Helped the Breakthrough

Mr. Xia believes that the restoration of the website can be largely attributed to the users' help. "To understand the problem, we needed assistance from users in Mainland China. As soon as we sent out a test version of the software, despite technological difficulties, many Mainland Chinese Internet users who are not computer professionals immediately studied and used it, and provided us with precious information."

Mr. Xia appreciated the special relationship between the website and its users. He said, "For an ordinary commercial service, when the service is bad, the users will complain and be angry. But when something went wrong with our website, which provides the Chinese people with websites [not available in China due to the government's censorship], our users showed care and took the initiative to work with our technicians to solve the problem.

"Although a lot of people are studying Internet blockade breakthrough, very few have been able match DynaWeb, which successfully counters a blockade by a national government that controls the entire country's Internet resources. In this clash, both the censorship and anti-censorship work require a process of accumulation of knowledge. Although the CCP has made some technological advances, the open nature of Internet technology and the popularity of uncensored information among the people has given DynaWeb the upper hand."

Rights Campaigns and CCP Withdrawals Main Reasons for Censorship

The CCP has always censored the Internet in China. It usually worsens around the anniversary of the June 4 Tiananmen Square Massacre and right before the Chinese New Year. Mr. Xia said that the CCP put extra efforts into censorship this year due to the rapidly growing number of campaigns of the people to protect their rights and withdrawals from the CCP. "The CCP can see the Internet's great power in these movements to spread information and solidify grassroots efforts. That's why they would really like to kill this channel of communication."

According to statistics on DynaWeb, the most browsed contents are: breaking news (including rights movements, speeches and actions by attorney Gao Zhisheng and organ harvesting from live Falun Gong practitioners), news related commentaries, trends and indicators of change among high-ranking CCP officials, and Falun Gong activities and news published on Clearwisdom.net.

[ Note: Bill Xia and friends created DynaWeb in 2002 to specialize in breaking through Internet censorship. The domain name, www.dongtaiwang.com has been hijacked in China, but users can use other channels created by DynaWeb to access information. ]