People are silhouetted as they pose with laptops in front of a screen projected with a Google logo, in this picture illustration taken in Zenica October 29, 2014. 
 
 BEIJING Google Inc's Gmail was blocked in China after months of disruptions to the world's biggest email service, with an anti-censorship advocate suggesting the Great Firewall was to blame. 
 
 Large numbers of Gmail Web addresses were cut off in China on Friday, said GreatFire.org, a China-based freedom of speech advocacy group. Users said the service was still down on Monday. 
 
 "I think the government is just trying to further eliminate Google's presence in China and even weaken its market overseas," said a member of GreatFire.org, who uses a pseudonym. 
 
 Google's own Transparency Report, which shows real-time traffic to Google services, displayed a sharp drop-off in traffic to Gmail from China on Friday. 
 
 "We've checked and there's nothing wrong on our end," a Singapore-based spokesman for Google said in an email. 
 
 In Washington, the U.S. State Department expressed concern over China's actions. 
 
 "We encourage China to be transparent in its dealings with international companies and to consider the market signal it sends with such acts," State Department spokesman Jeff Rathke said. 
 
 Almost all of Google's services have been heavily disrupted in China since June this year, but until last week Gmail users could still access emails downloaded via protocols like IMAP, SMTP and POP3. These had let people communicate using Gmail on apps like the Apple iPhone's Mail and Microsoft Outlook. 
 
 China maintains tight control over the Internet, nipping in the bud any signs of dissent or challenges to the ruling Communist Party's leadership. 
 
 The country is host to the world's most sophisticated internet censorship mechanism, known as the Great Firewall of China. Critics say China has stepped up its disruption of foreign online services like Google over the past year to create an Internet cut off from the rest of the world. 
 
 The Google disruption began in the run-up to the 25th anniversary of the government's bloody crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrators around Beijing's Tiananmen Square on June 4, 1989. 
 
 Gmail's setback could make email communication difficult for companies operating in China, said GreatFire. 
 
 Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said she did not know anything about Gmail being blocked, adding that the government was committed to providing a good business environment for foreign investors. 
 
 "China has consistently had a welcoming and supportive attitude toward foreign investors doing legitimate business here," she said. "We will, as always, provide an open, transparent and good environment for foreign companies in China." 
 
 One popular way to get around China's internet censorship is to use a Virtual Private Network (VPN), which allows unhindered access to blocked sites and services. 
 
 "Using a VPN seems to be the only answer to doing anything these days online in China," said Zach Smith, a Beijing-based digital products manager at City Weekend magazine. 
 
 (Additional reporting by Ben Blanchard in Beijing and Lesley Wroughton in Washington; Editing by Nick Macfie and Richard Chang) 

 Agence France-Presse/Getty Images 
 
 China has upped the ante in its longstanding censorship of all things Google. In the six months since Google’s mail service Gmail was blocked in mainland China, users had been able to access it using third-party email applications such as Microsoft Outlook or Apple Mail. 
 
 Beijing now appears to have closed the loophole, completely shutting down access to Gmail behind the so-called Great Firewall. Google data showed Gmail appeared to have been walled off starting Friday. Google spokesman Taj Meadows acknowledged the drop in traffic and said Monday that "there's nothing wrong on our end." 

 Gmail has been comprehensively blocked in China six months after government censors first began disrupting access to the service. Google’s Transparency Report shows Gmail traffic falling dramatically in the country on the night of December 25th, and while Chinese officials have not claimed responsibility, a Singapore-based spokesperson for Google told Reuters: "We've checked and there's nothing wrong on our end." 
 
 Chinese censors began disrupting Gmail access in May this year 
 
 China already blocks an array of Google services including its main search site, Google Maps, Google Docs, and Google Drive. The country began making access to Gmail more difficult in the run up to the 25th anniversary of the 1989 June 4th Tiananmen Square protests, but determined users could still access their accounts from apps via IMAP, POP, and STMP protocols. Now, it seems, Chinese censors have closed this loophole, leaving virtual private networks (VPNs) as the last remaining access route to Gmail and other blocked services. 
 
 Google data shows Gmail traffic in China falling sharply on the night of December 25th (Google) 
 
 China has been seen as taking an increasingly restrictive approach to online censorship in recent years, with one expert describing it as "an unprecedented crackdown." As well as Google, sites including Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter are all blocked in the country, while authorized services are heavily monitored and controversial search terms banned outright. Blocking Gmail however will not just hurt freedom of speech — it could also damage Google’s marketshare in countries that regularly do business with China. A member of censorship watchdog GreatFire.org told Reuters: "Imagine if Gmail users might not get through to Chinese clients. Many people outside China might be forced to switch away from Gmail."
– The Great Firewall has apparently expanded. Gmail hasn't been directly accessible for six months in China; now users can't reach it through third-party services like Microsoft Outlook either. The latest crackdown on Google in the country appears to have begun on Friday, according to Google data, the Wall Street Journal reports. Traffic has cratered, but "there's nothing wrong on our end," a Google spokesman said today. The closest the Journal got to a statement from China was this: A rep for China's foreign ministry today said she hadn't heard about the issue and that China "always welcomes foreign businesses to carry out relevant work." "I think the government is just trying to further eliminate Google's presence in China and even weaken its market overseas," says a free-speech activist per Reuters. "Imagine if Gmail users might not get through to Chinese clients. Many people outside China might be forced to switch away from Gmail." Users in China can still access Gmail and other barred services if they use virtual private networks, reports note. The initial move against Gmail came in June, ahead of the anniversary of the Tiananmen Square protest crackdown, the Verge reports. Google services like Search, Maps, Drive, and YouTube are also blocked in the country, as are Facebook and Twitter.