Chinese authorities on Tuesday doubled down on their decision to effectively block Google's email service Gmail, saying the Internet giant's refusal to obey local laws was to blame for the shutdown, the Guardian reported.

Gmail has been largely inaccessible from within China since June, but until last week, users could still access email downloaded via protocols that allow them to download messages to applications, such as iPhone Mail and Microsoft Outlook, the Guardian detailed. But even that loophole has been shut since Monday.

"China welcomes (Google) to do business on the prerequisite that it obeys Chinese law," said the Global Times, a tabloid linked to the official mouthpiece of the Communist Party. "However, Google values more its reluctance to be restricted by Chinese law, resulting in conflict."

The newspaper urged citizens to "accept the reality of Gmail being suspended in China," though it ironically lashed out at Western media for reporting that the government was behind the outage, Computerworld said.

China operates the world's most extensive and sophisticated Internet censorship system, colloquially known as the "great firewall." Foreign websites -- including Facebook, Twitter and YouTube -- are routinely blocked, and content critical of the regime is quickly deleted.

Traffic to Gmail servers from Chinese IP addresses has dropped sharply over the last four days. Beijing had previously blocked other Google services, including search and regular Gmail access, in the run-up to the 25th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square protests and ensuing violent crackdown.

Google, meanwhile, insisted the increased inaccessibility of Gmail is not due to a technical issue, as Chinese state media had suggested.

"We've checked, and there's nothing wrong on our end," a Singapore-based spokesman for the company said.

Users in China can still access Gmail and other blocked websites if they go through the cumbersome step of setting up their own virtual private networks, Forbes advised. These so-called VPNs bypass restrictions "by allowing an Internet-connected device to call the shots on its own network." In China, they have proved popular among journalists and dissidents.