China announced last week that they would start blocking all voice over IP telephone services, except for those provided by China Telecom and China Unicom. This is going to make it rough on Chinese students, and business people with contracts in the United States and Europe, since a large chunk of those communications have been taking place on non-Chinese VoIP based products, like Skype.

According to the English version of the “People’s Daily Online“:

The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology said all VoIP (voice over Internet protocol) phone services are illegal on the Chinese mainland, except those provided by telecommunications carriers China Telecom and China Unicom. The ministry gave no timetable on when the ruling takes effect.

Where do you think this new set of self-protective laws will take the Chinese government and their business relationships with the outside world?