Is Bing blocked in China?

Unlike most other Western search engines, Bing is not blocked in China. The reason for this is simple: Microsoft agrees to censor search results while competitors like Google and Yahoo do not. If you’re planning a trip to China and want to know what to expect, keep reading.  I’ll explain what’s different about using Bing in China, why it was previously temporarily unavailable, and how to access other search engines during your visit.

Is Bing blocked in China?

Bing works in China and is not blocked by the country’s Great Firewall. This is because Microsoft censors search results, helping it comply with Chinese legislation and remain available where rivals like DuckDuckGo and Google are not. This means that the same search term will likely provide different results based on whether you’re in China or abroad.

On the plus side, Bing isn’t likely to be banned any time soon. Microsoft’s cooperation benefits both it and the government, and its services remain largely accessible in China. In fact, the last time Bing was unavailable, it became headline news. Access was restored the following day and Microsoft says the outage was caused by a technical error, not censorship.

With this in mind, privacy-conscious users may want to reconsider using Bing in China. Here are a few practical tips for browsing the internet safely during your visit:

• Remember that your searches and other online activities are monitored.
• Try to avoid using sensitive keywords in your searches and messages.
• Consider using a Virtual Private Network (VPN) or Tor to enhance your privacy.
• Use a foreign eSIM to sidestep censorship and access Bing alternatives in China.
• Do not use public wifi hotspots or scan QR codes if at all possible.

Why is Bing the only Western search engine that works in China?

The only reason Bing isn’t blocked in China is because Microsoft helps enforce the government’s oppressive digital censorship. While the full scale of this collaboration isn’t clear, Microsoft appears to work closely with Chinese authorities. For instance, we know:

• Bing’s translation tool has stricter censorship than its Chinese counterparts.
• Microsoft Bing is more likely to censor religious and political search results than Baidu.
• Bing censors autocomplete suggestions for politically-sensitive Chinese names, even outside of China itself.
• Microsoft has twice been accused of censoring Chinese-language search results for Bing users outside of China. Both times it blamed a bug and said it had resolved the issue.
• Microsoft sidelined its own search engine to make Baidu the default in China.

Microsoft, meanwhile, maintains that Bing is doing a public service by providing access to information no Chinese search engine does. However, it’s unclear what type of content Microsoft is referring to, or how it achieves this without breaking censorship rules. The company also claims it regularly pushes back against legal requests but there’s no way to prove this either way.

Does every Microsoft service work in China?

Most Microsoft services including Word, Excel, and Outlook are accessible in China. There are a few exceptions, though. OneDrive is blocked, as is CoPilot, and Chinese Xbox users can’t play online games with people in other countries. Additionally, Microsoft Teams doesn’t have a personal use plan in China – it’s for businesses and schools only.

How to bypass censorship and unblock any website in China

There are three main ways to get around China’s digital censorship, each with their own strengths and weaknesses. I’ll cover each of these below so you can make an informed decision about your security before traveling to China.

Unblocking sites using a VPN

VPNs for China enhance your privacy by encrypting your internet traffic, limiting the ways your ISP can monitor your activities. For instance, they can’t see which sites you visit or what you do there (though they can analyze traffic patterns to make educated guesses). Your encrypted data is then sent through a server in another country, sidestepping the Great Firewall entirely.

VPNs are legal in China but foreign providers’ websites are blocked and you’re only allowed to use government-approved services. That said, it’s extremely uncommon for tourists to be punished for using an unapproved VPN. On the rare occasions people are charged, it’s usually for selling an unlicensed VPN service or encouraging others to evade censorship.

Bypassing the Great Firewall via Tor

Tor also sends your traffic through encrypted servers, but these are decentralized and volunteer-owned for even greater anonymity. Also, while most VPNs have just one layer of encryption, Tor uses at least three. The biggest downside is that this adds a lot of overhead, meaning your speeds will be significantly reduced. Still, this is a free way to beat the world’s toughest online censorship, so it’s hard to complain too much.

Sidestepping censorship with a foreign eSIM

Finally, you can beat Chinese censorship with an eSIM but only if you bought it before arriving in China. When you browse using mobile data, your phone carrier sends your traffic through its partner networks in other countries, completely bypassing the Great Firewall. Better still, eSIMs are cheap, readily-available, and not subject to the same restrictions Tor and VPNs are.

Conclusion

Bing, like most other Microsoft services, is readily-accessible in China. Unfortunately, this is only possible because Microsoft cooperates with authorities and censors search results. That’s a problem because even when you’re a guest in another country, you deserve privacy. Luckily, you have several ways to access unbiased, unfiltered information and communicate safely with friends back home. Best of all, none of them takes more than an hour to set up.

Related: How to get a Chinese IP address