SKYPE CHINA SKIMS

Shanghai : Skype taken from China app stores, including Apple's.

One of the last foreign-run tools for online communications in China appears to be in trouble with the authorities here.

For almost a month, Skype, the internet phone cell and messaging service, has been unavailable on a number of sites where apps are downloaded in China, including Apple's app store in the country.

''We have been notified by the Ministry of Public Security that a number of voice-over internet protocol apps do not comply with local law.

Therefore these apps have been removed from the app store in China,'' an Apple spokeswoman said Thursday in an emailed statement responding to questions about Skype's disappearance from the app store.

''These apps remain available in all other markets where they do business.''

The removal led to a volley of complaints from Chinese users on internet message boards who were no longer able to pay for Skype's services through Apple. The users said the disruption began in late October.

Skype which is owned by Microsoft, still functions in China, and its fate in the country is not yet clear.

But its removal from the app stores is the most recent example of a decades-long push by Chinese government to control and monitor the flow of information online.

While china has long wielded the most sophisticated and comprehensive internet controls in the world, under President Xi Jinping it has upped the ante, squelching most major foreign social networks and messaging apps one at a time.

Earlier this fall, WhatsApp, the Facebook owned messaging service, was hit by blockages in China, becoming the latest in a long line of products to be rendered unusable by Chinese government filters.

Others include Gmail, Facebook, Snapchat, Twitter, Telegram and Line.

Beijing appears to have disabled these apps because they generally feature encryption options that makes messages harder for the government to monitor.

Such products also often run afoul of government rules that require the use of real-name identification for each and every account.