[Lex]

We know internet in China has this great firewall censoring unwanted propaganda content abroad. So,

Only when I was physically in China last week did I realise that... It appeared that papermodelers.com is blocked in its entirety by the GFW, starting some point around early 2019. All access requests to this domain now results in a timeout.

As to why the GFW would want to block a cardmodel hobby forum is, well, quite beyond me. Maybe the plastic model companies paid them into doing this :P

So it really means that the number of Chinese visitors to this forum will go from a handful to quite literally zero. I mean of course, VPN services to bypass GFW are a must-have for any serious Chinese netizen. But the additional hassle involved will simply turn away all but the most dedicated visitors. Kartonbau, Korandus and other EU/Russian forums are still accessible as far as I know, so it appears Papermodelers have simply drawn the short straw.