President Donald Trump will still be able to Tweet from China even though the site is blocked to Chinese citizens.
‘The president will tweet whatever he wants,’ a senior White House official told reporters aboard Air Force One shortly before Trump landed in Beijing.
The Chinese government currently allows foreigners to access Twitter and Facebook if their phones are in roaming mode.
It is said this is how Mark Zuckerberg famously posted on Facebook from China in 2016.
Trump will likely be connected to US-based service provider, not a Chinese one, leaving him outside reach of the so-called Great Firewall.
President Donald Trump will still be able to Tweet from China even though the site is blocked to Chinese citizens
U.S. President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump board Air Force One at Osan Air Base in Pyeongtaek, South Korea before flying to China
But even if this changed, Trump would be able to Tweet from AirForce One which has its own secure WiFi system.
‘I’m sure we’ve got the gear aboard this airplane to make it happen,’ said the White House official.
‘That’s his way of communicating directly with the American people. Why not?’
Trump could also use a virtual private network (VPN) – software that allows people to surf the internet as if they were using a server in another country.
Another possibility is that there is an official arrangement between the US and Chinese governments to let Trump use Twitter on the Chinese network.
US President Donald Trump poses with First Lady Melania Trump in the Forbidden City in Beijing
One Chinese Twitter user, who wanted to remain anonymous for fear of reprisal, told MailOnline: ‘Data roaming is going to be very hard to block.
‘It goes straight back to your country of origin so for it to be blocked your overseas service provider would have to say no roaming of any kind (especially data) when overseas.’
China monitors people’s internet habits and blocks websites such as Twitter, Facebook and Google in the name of ‘protecting national security.’
Chinese nationals can face fines or even jail time for unfavourable social media posts. Authorities have further tightened internet controls in recent months, shutting down celebrity gossip blogs and probing platforms for ‘obscenity.’
Weibo, a Twitter-like Chinese social media platform, was ablaze Wednesday with comments about what Trump would do without his most cherished form of communication.
Since Trump’s election in 2016, critics among Chinese internet users have mockingly described American governance as ‘rule by Twitter.’
Some commenters feigned ignorance about the site in a bid to not get in trouble with authorities.
‘Fake news. What’s Twitter? This website doesn’t exist,’ one quipped.
Others appeared to be asking for explanations about Twitter in earnest, while still others called on Trump to create a Weibo account.
‘In the three days that Trump’s off Twitter, someone else will surely seize the throne,’ commented a user on Zhihu, a question-and-answer platform akin to Quora.
US President Donald Trump will be among other foreigners who are able to access Twitter