Gmail of Google Inc., after few months of disturbances on its email service, was stopped in China.
GreatFire.org said last Friday that numerous addresses of Gmail web were stopped in China. The service was still down yesterday according to some users.
The Transparency Report by Google revealed that Gmail's real-time traffic going to China saw a sharp drop-off on Friday.
Google's official, based in Singapore, through an email, said "We've checked and there's nothing wrong on our end."
The U.S. State Department in Washington also expressed their concern regarding China's action
Jeff Rathke, spokesman of the State Department said, "We encourage China to be transparent in its dealings with international companies and to consider the market signal it sends with such acts."
A majority of Google's services in China were disrupted heavily since June, 2014, the 25th anniversary of the bloody crackdown of the government on pro-democracy protesters at Tiananmen Square in Beijing on June 4, 1989. However, users of Gmail can still access their emails by downloading through POP3, SMTP, and IMAP. These allow users to communicate by the use of Gmail on apps such as Microsoft Outlook and Apple iPhone's Mail.
China is known as the host of the 'Great Firewall', the "most sophisticated internet censorship mechanism" of the world.
Hua Chunying, the Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, said that she knows nothing with regards to Gmail being stopped in China.
"China has consistently had a welcoming and supportive attitude towards foreign investors doing legitimate business here," Chunying said. "We will, as always, provide an open, transparent and good environment for foreign companies in China."
Using Virtual Private Network or VPN is one common way to bypass internet censorship of China.
City Weekend magazine's digital product manager in Beijing said "Using a VPN seems to be the only answer to doing anything these days online in China."