Eh, the PRC blocks a lot of sites for different reasons. Could be in two weeks it’s unblocked and then blocked again. Unfortunately short of asking someone in China I doubt we’ll get an answer.

I tried to look it up, but I didn’t really find anything useful.

My assumption, and mind you it is only an assumption, is that the MIT does sometimes act as a progressor of imperialist aims - and since the 90s MIT has been engaged in a partnership with the mainland, Taiwan, and Hong Kong to send American student engineers and scientists to China to work with Chinese businesses and universities, which seems to (at least from the vibe I was getting looking on MIT’s site about this) try to legitimise Taiwan and Hong Kong as independent and legitimate countries in the eyes of not only the students they send, but in the eyes of the people the students work with. Though, just generally, it reeks of bourgeois 20-year-olds being sent to the culturally isolated parts of a hostile culture that agree with their biases to act as white saviours.

I have no idea if any of that factored into the blocking of MIT’s site (nor have I checked to verify if they have actually blocked MIT’s site) though, so, consider this just me talking out of my ass.