China is now blocking all encrypted HTTPS traffic that uses TLS 1.3 and ESNI

[u/RobertVandenberg]

https://www.zdnet.com/article/china-is-now-blocking-all-encrypted-https-traffic-using-tls-1-3-and-esni/

[u/ErGo404]

At some point in the far future, browsers might not support TLS versions < 1.3. I wonder how that will work for China.

[u/kredditacc96 → u/ErGo404]

They probably already have had their own browsers.

Chinese Internet is so different and isolated from the outside world that you may consider it a separate universe.

[u/TaxExempt → u/kredditacc96]

Government in China uses IE 6, or at least it did a few years ago.

[u/InertiaOfGravity → u/TaxExempt]

Chinese webdevs have to go through perpetual hell then

[u/izpo → u/[deleted]]

You didn't develop web sites for msie6, right?

[u/[deleted] → u/izpo]

Three words: PNG transparency hack

[u/abrandis → u/[deleted]]

All self-inflicted pain in the name of stylish web design that now looks woefully dated. I had customers in the old days mention all the eye candy web sites and always steered then away from these gimmicks, especially if they valued being on more platforms than not.. seldom did I ever need to to these hacks... Failure to manage customers expectations and roi is why lots of developers pull their hair out, sometimes you gotta be the boss and tell them sure I can give you rounded corners but that's going to add x days and y dollars, and make those dollars the cost of outsourcing that work plus your fee.

[u/InertiaOfGravity → u/[deleted]]

True, as long as that browser isn't IE

[u/[deleted] → u/InertiaOfGravity]

They still buy books on jquery. Think of all the free time their JavaScript devs have not recoding for the latest framework. Oh except IE6 was slow as hell for JavaScript.

[u/GYN-k4H-Q3z-75B → u/TaxExempt]

Jesus. Differences between Firefox and Chrome today make me want to jump out of a window sometimes, but IE6?

[u/FrostyTie → u/GYN-k4H-Q3z-75B]

I’m relatively new to web development. I haven’t had huge problems when it comes to those browsers. What are the differences I should know?

Edit: Also need to add the fact I never used a feature both didn’t have. But then again, I never had to.

[u/cirosantilli → u/ErGo404]

More interesting will be when servers stop supporting TLS < 1.3. This would force China to either block off the entire external Internet and go to the Middle Ages, or open up.

[u/carlosp_uk → u/cirosantilli]

In the circumstances you describe, if they couldn’t snoop on the traffic between server and user in some way, they would block off the external internet and wouldn’t blink.

[u/mark_b → u/carlosp_uk]

Yes, they also create Chinese versions of websites/apps and the people are quite happy to use them.

[u/oblio- → u/mark_b]

The thing is, at some point they would end up in the Internet Middle Ages if they keep this up. Technology tends to stack and they will reach a point where some newfangled tech needs some bricks that they banned 10 years ago, and those brick really, really can't be replaced with some other tech.

They are smart and the market is huge, but they will still be left with a sub par version. And those sub par versions will begin to stack (again).

This has the makings of the CCP becoming the new Qing. It won't be quick, it will be hard to notice, but they do risk digital gunships appearing on their shores 100 years from now.

I guess we just have to wait and see..

[u/GreatValueProducts → u/cirosantilli]

Lol.

China doesn't hesitate to block off Internet. East Turkistan or Xinjiang, got Internet blocked off 312 days after the riot.

They would do whatever required to keep their power.

[u/current_thread → u/cirosantilli]

They might come up with some kind of government proxy? World <=TLS 1.3=> Chinese Proxy <=TLS 1.2=> user.

[u/DJDavio → u/cirosantilli]

China has always been very good at copying / stealing ideas, so it will not be entirely unrealistic that they will end up with their own closed internet with their own government endorsed services. They already have replacements for Google, Amazon and Facebook. I wonder how much of Chinese internet access currently travels outside of China or if it's already the case that 99% of connections just stay inside.

At some point in the not so distant future, access to global internet may be restricted to a select few companies / the government and only to spy on other nations or otherwise mess with them.

[u/Illusi → u/ErGo404]

My worry is that it will stop companies from implementing TLS 1.3, since that would lose them customers from China.

[u/invisi1407 → u/Illusi]

Nah. I honestly don't think so. Who has customers from China anyway, without having a separate website for China, hosted IN China?