Beijing is nervous about citizens finding sensitive information online, especially this year, Xia said.

China may have boosted its manpower and improved integration with the country's international IP routers to expand the blocking against FreeGate, Xia said. Xia's team has since expanded its network of IPs to make the program's traffic harder to identify, and its speed has since returned to normal, he said.

That followed years of technological back-and-forth with China's censors, with developers of FreeGate always upgrading it to counter China's most recent blocking tactics, Xia said.

Mobile phones have helped information in China flow more freely as well. Videos captured on cell phones of riots last year in Tibet reached a global audience when they were posted online. Tibet is controlled by China, but many residents still revere the Dalai Lama, the leader of Tibetan Buddhism who has lived in exile from the region for decades.

Mass text messaging on mobile phones drew thousands of Chinese in Xiamen, a coastal city, to demonstrate against the construction of a chemical plant two years ago.