internet - Has Google been performing that badly?

Google is coming with an additional explanation to tell us why they wanted to enter the China market physically. Our service in China has been bad, writes Andrew McLaughlin, senior policy counsel, on the official Google blog (you might need a proxy in China to read this).

Google users in China today struggle with a service that, to be blunt, isn't very good. Google.com appears to be down around 10% of the time. Even when users can reach it, the website is slow, and sometimes produces results that when clicked on, stall out the user's browser. Our Google News service is never available; Google Images is accessible only half the time. At Google we work hard to create a great experience for our users, and the level of service we've been able to provide in China is not something we're proud of.

That struck me as odd. Alright, connectivity in China is still a problem and what they sell as broadband is often only comparable with a dialup. But apart from a few dreadful weeks three years ago when Google was actually blocked, I never has any substantial problems. Any feedback from people back in China?