These tips how to bypass South China Post paywall definitely work.
You can still read the South China Morning Post (SCMP) website content, including SCMP EXCLUSIVES for free.
SCMP is Hong Kong-based English-language newspaper owned by Alibaba Group, and it covers a wide range of topics: news, business & tech, lifestyle and critical insights and analysis on China.
Take note, the two-year old tip using 12feet mentioned in Reddit does not work any more.
Even the popular Bypass Paywalls Clean extension could not remove its paywall.
Forget about the Google Chrome extension "South China Morning Clearance".
Here are three ways to get past SCMP paywalls right now.
How to bypass South China Morning Post paywall
- Archive.Today
- Google search results pages (SERPs)
1. Archive.Today
Use the free archive site called Archive.Today, which stores snapshots of web pages.
You can even read SCMP EXCLUSIVES and This Week In Asia, articles with this method.
If the article which you want to read, which has already archived, it would prompt you that it is available.
You can read right away.
But if it is not archived, then you have to wait for awhile for it to archive it, before you can read it.
This is what you do:
Go to Archive.Today.
Paste the locked For Subscribers article URL in the space provided under "My url is alive and I want to archive its content".
Next click the "save" button.
If that article has already archived, you can read it straight away.
But if it is not archived, wait for it to finish archiving, then you can view the complete article.
Archive.Today extension
For convenience, install the Archive.Today extension for Chrome browser.
Click here for Chrome Archive Today Extension.
After you have installed the extension, you can see its its icon (globe with the share symbol) at the toolbar.
These are three (3) ways how to use the Archive Today extension to access South China Morning Post articles.
i. Click Archive.Today icon
When you come to the blocked article, click the Archive Today icon at the toolbar.
It will take you to the Archive Today site.
If the article has already archived, then you can read it there and then.
If not, then it says "No results" and you have to archive it.
ii. Click article text
When you are at the blocked article page, click anywhere on the article text .
A context menu pops up, then click "Search archive.today for page".
Similarly it takes you to the Archive Today site.
Again if the page have already been archived, you can see it right there.
If it is still not archived, then archive it, so you can view it.
iii. Right click article title
The third way is when you are the SCMP homepage, or at the search engine results pages.
Right click the article title.
A context menu box pops up, move your mouse cursor from "Archive" to "Archive link" and "Search link".
Click any of the two options.
When you click the "Archive link", and if the article is already archived, you can read it straight away.
If not, automatically it will start loading and archived it for you.
When you click on the "Search link", and if the article is already archived, you can see it right there.
But if the article is still not archived, it says "No results".
You have to click on the hyperlink "archive this url", then click the "save" button.
Then wait for it to archive it.
NOTE: Mozilla Firefox has removed Archive.Today extension from its store.
But you can use this similar One-Click Today.Archive extension.
2. Google search results pages
This method works, but you could not access every SCMP article for free.
I came across one of its EXCLUSIVE article, fully and freely available using this method.
The blocked article is, "Australia and UK receive 916 applications from Hongkongers seeking asylum over 5 years".
It is found in Microsoft Start site from Google search results.
These are two ways how to bypass South China Morning paywall, in order to read it for free without subscription.
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