Two things:

- "In the long term" doesn't make for a more favorable environment to the tech savvy users supposed to push that change.

- I'm not sure you quite understand how ballsy they are. If they've cut Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and find time to screw in a real sneaky fashion with Google, I think it's safe to say they'd block Github without even thinking twice.

Then put this type of info (and references to Tienanmen Square) on every important science and technology website in the world. At some point, the government either has to let go and start freeing things up, or end up isolating themselves further. At the very least, it'll highlight the problem to the populace.

My own government is seeking to restrict Internet openness. Sucks. Highlight it at every opportunity, I say.

Yep. If the gov has to block everything, they come closer to being compare to North Korea and Iran. I hate the blocking, and the VPN disruption lately is absolutely painful, but maybe if they piss enough people off, their will he some significant pushback.

Xi is not getting off to a good start.

And NYTimes, Bloomberg, UK Telegraph, and many others.

China actually blocks the services for many reasons other than just censorship. It's also a very effective method of protectionism. China now has its own thriving social networks - QQ, Weixin, and successful e-commerce and search sites. This may not have occurred if China did not use censorship as an excuse to block US based sites.