The iTunes Store has had its access restored in China, and is available once again. Last week, local internet police decided to block iTunes access due to a pro-Tibet album sold through the store. The web page for downloading the pro-Tibet album, which is suspected of prompting the iTunes closure in the first place, remains unavailable on the service. 40 iTunes users in China, including athletes in the Olympic village, downloaded the album before the censors interrupted sales. It’s thought that “Songs for Tibet,” an album released by the Art of Peace Foundation in support of Tibetan independence, is the album responsible for this.

Learn where this could lead after the break.

It seems the latest internet service to fall victim to the “Great Firewall of China” is Apple’s iTunes Store. According to a New York Times article, this is likely the Chinese government’s response to the “Songs for Tibet” benefit album, which features many popular artists—including Rush, John Mayer, Sting and Dave Matthews—that was released on iTunes on August 5th, just before the start of the Beijing Olympics.

The start of the problems coincided with an announcement from an activist group which said that around 40 Olympic athletes had downloaded a pro-Tibet benefit album that was also carried on iTunes.

More after the break.