Bloomberg website remains blocked in China

The Financial Times reports that Bloomberg News‘ website remains blocked in China, one month after it reported on the financial assets of the country’s vice president and leading candidate to become its next president.

Simon Rabinovitch of the FT writes, “Although periodic outages of foreign media websites in China are common, the month-long total blackout of Bloomberg is an unusually harsh response, highlighting the extent to which its coverage angered the government.

“Beijing has tried to apply pressure in other ways, too. In the weeks since the article was published, people believed to be state security agents have tailed some Bloomberg employees; Chinese bankers and financial regulators have cancelled previously arranged meetings with Matthew Winkler, Bloomberg’s editor-in-chief; and Chinese investigators have visited local investment banks to see if they shared any information with Bloomberg, according to people with knowledge of these incidents.

“The crackdown has not affected the operation of Bloomberg’s profit engine: its terminals, whose subscribers include Chinese state-owned banks and government bodies. However, members of Bloomberg’s China sales team have expressed concern that the chill from the website blackout could deter buyers, according to the people who spoke on the condition of anonymity.”

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