legality of mapping in china

im not clear about the current legality of mapping in china

could some 1 explain it to me.

cos what i read was even having a digital map in my phone is illegal.
what the * with that.
doesn’t that means osm, Google, yahoo, Bing maps are all illegal under these law?

i also read they got some sort of blacklisted sites.
http://www.zeenews.com/news627816.html
is OSM among them?

any answer is appreciated
thx

Since the OSM servers are not in China you are free to map away. In China creating maps is illegal, I read recently in a link to an official document. So, in China being in possession of the maps is probably illegal. Google, Bing etc. will have an agreement with the govt., if they are accessible on the Chinese net.

Having said that, several of us had GPS mounted on our bikes in plain view and we were tracking as we went (as any GPS does, even Chinese) and no official ever gave them a second look. We were looked at and inspected by many officials…

Here is a link to a 18 months old article on the subject:

http://www.telecomasia.net/content/foreigners-using-gps-face-arrest-china-0

Hugo