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China's Hainan Province Will Offer Access To Facebook, Twitter, Youtube in Special Tourist Zones

Sanya, Hainan (by Alex Kwok via Wikimedia Commons) South China's Hainan Province  will set up  special tourist zones where travellers will be able to access popular foreign websites such as Facebook, Twitter and Youtube that are currently blocked in mainland China.  According to state-run news outlet Global Times, this month   the government of Hainan Province has issued a three-year plan to improve the internationalization of the tourist industry. The plan includes the creation of special tourist zones with unrestricted internet access for overseas visitors. This move has been compared to the establishment of special economic zones during Deng Xiaoping's reform and opening up era in the late 1970s and 1980s.  China's internet is heavily censored by the Communist government. Last year Beijing launched a crackdown on the use of VPNs, which for decades have allowed users to bypass restrictions imposed by the authorities.  The island-province