The Star

The Star Malaysia: Censorship in China and North Korea

What The Star Is

The Star is Malaysia's largest English-language newspaper by circulation, launched in 1996. It operates under Star Publications (M) Bhd, a subsidiary of Malaysian Chinese Association Media, and maintains both print and digital editions serving roughly 1.2 million readers across Malaysia and the diaspora. The outlet covers general news, politics, business, and lifestyle content with a focus on Malaysian and regional affairs.

Why It's Censored

China blocks The Star under the State Council Information Office and CAC (Cyberspace Administration of China) regulations governing foreign news outlets. The blocking intensified after 2016 as Beijing restricted access to international English-language media it deemed critical of Chinese governance or pro-independence movements in Taiwan and Tibet. The Star's reporting on Uyghur human rights issues and Xi Jinping-era policies triggered systematic filtering.

North Korea's isolation framework treats nearly all foreign news sources as ideological threats. The Media Control Bureau and Ministry of State Security enforce near-total internet blockade for civilians, with The Star (like all foreign outlets) deemed incompatible with state-controlled media monopolies. Access is restricted to elite party officials with supervised international connectivity.

Technical Blocking Methods

In China, blocking operates through multiple layers. DNS poisoning is the first line—queries for thestar.com.my return null or false IP addresses. IP-level filtering blocks known Star servers at major ISP gateways. For HTTPS traffic, SNI (Server Name Indication) filtering intercepts the hostname handshake before encryption completes, identifying and dropping Star connections. DPI (Deep Packet Inspection) monitors patterns of encrypted traffic to flag and terminate sessions matching Star's signature behavior.

North Korea employs cruder methods: blanket IP blocking of known international news domains and static DNS redirection. Given civilian internet access is nonexistent outside Pyongyang's elite network, dynamic circumvention is rarely attempted or feasible.

User Workarounds

For China-based users, circumvention typically involves VPN tunneling that encrypts traffic before it reaches ISP inspection points, masking both DNS queries and IP destinations. However, VPN blocking itself is aggressive—the Great Firewall identifies and throttles known VPN protocols (OpenVPN, WireGuard) through signature detection. Users employ protocol obfuscation tools that disguise VPN traffic as ordinary HTTPS, making blocking harder to implement without degrading legitimate browsing.

Proxy-chain methods (routing through multiple jurisdictions) add latency but reduce single-point-of-failure risk. Tor usage remains viable but is periodically degraded through endpoint blocking. For North Korea, circumvention is theoretically possible only for users with external access, using similar VPN/proxy methods, though state surveillance makes usage extremely high-risk.

Alternatives

Regional English-language outlets like Straits Times (Singapore) face lighter censorship in China, though not complete freedom. Nikkei Asia (Japan) and Reuters maintain partial access through selective IP whitelisting in certain Chinese jurisdictions. BBC and Voice of America remain blocked in China but through separate designations. None offer Malaysia-specific coverage equivalent to The Star.

Outlook

Restrictions are tightening, not easing. China's CAC has expanded VPN oversight since 2017, and protocol obfuscation tools face accelerating detection rates. North Korea shows no liberalization trajectory. For Malaysian diaspora users in China seeking domestic news, The Star's accessibility will remain contingent on evolving cat-and-mouse blocking techniques. Long-term, expect IP and SNI filtering to become more granular rather than relaxed.