Is Bing blocked in China?

Yes, Bing is blocked in China. In 2014, Microsoft was charged with filtering its content services in China, in what can only be seen as an effort to keep the service available in China. By filtering content, residents in China and anyone using internet services in the country were receiving different search results than those who were using the search engine outside of the country.

At some point between 2014 and the present, Bing was censored by the Chinese government, along with many other websites blocked by the Great Firewall of China. In fact, Microsoft went as far as changing their default search engine in China from Bing to the Chinese search engine, Baidu.

The reason why Bing is blocked in China is the same reason many other websites are blocked. Bing allows users to access information freely available and published all over the world. In particular, this means accessing democratically-published newspapers and content that may be in opposition to the Chinese government. Such freedom of information could serve to undermine faith in the Communist Party.

Bing is not the only search engine that’s blocked in China. Other services, such as Google and Yahoo, are commonly blocked. At times, you may find Google is not blocked. This is not always the case.

Banning Bing does not stop those in China from using a search engine. The most popular search Engine in China is Baidu, by a large degree. Nevertheless, Bing, along with Yahoo and Google are still utilized, despite the block.

How to access Bing in China

You can access Bing in China by connecting to a VPN on your computer or phone. A VPN, or virtual private network, encrypts the data that passes between your device and your ISP, rerouting that data through a remote server. Most VPN services allow you to choose a server as your intermediary in a large number of locations around the world. A user who decides to choose a location in the US, for example, would be able to gain access to all websites freely available in the US.

Many VPNs are subscription-based services that use monthly or yearly plans. The most reputable VPN services provide users with a large selection of servers from around the world, unlimited bandwidth, military-grade encryption, and no data caps.

There are some VPN services that will not work in China. These services are blacklisted by China’s highly advanced censorship system, the Great Firewall. Users will find that being selective with their VPN choice is important. You can find working, reliable options on our list of the best VPN services for China.

As you can use Bing on both your computer or mobile device, we suggest choosing a VPN service that provides programs that work on multiple platforms, and that allow you to connect with multiple devices at once. VPNs will work on any data connection, although wifi and ethernet connections are usually more stable.

Our recommended VPN for accessing sites in China is ExpressVPN. It’s highly reliably, very easy to use, high on security and anonymity features, and provides servers in 78 countries. You can read a full ExpressVPN review here.

After installing the application or mobile app, log in and connect to a server outside of China. Once a successful connection is established, you can access Bing just as you would in any country outside of China where Bing is freely available.

Although the ban is in place, Bing is still among the top 10 search engines in the country. Many Chinese users with VPNs utilize the service to search the web for freely available information that’s normally blocked by the Chinese government.

Happy searching!