That is not entirely correct. It would be trivial to block requests on port 5222/5269, though as you said actually blocking the protocol itself would require deep-packet inspection (because you could run it on port 443 for example).
Then you can of course run on top of Tor/I2P (or equivalent) for federation. It’s not exactly game over when a protocol is blocked, but the stakes are high. You’ll end up in prison for defying state censorship.
That is not entirely correct. It would be trivial to block requests on port 5222/5269, though as you said actually blocking the protocol itself would require deep-packet inspection (because you could run it on port 443 for example).
Then you can of course run on top of Tor/I2P (or equivalent) for federation. It’s not exactly game over when a protocol is blocked, but the stakes are high. You’ll end up in prison for defying state censorship.