OpenERP 6 ran within a client/server architecture, but seemingly this is no longer so in version 7. Can the web-client part still be separated (i.e. by some customization/hacks) such that one PC runs only the part that used to be openerp-server and the other PCs what used to be openerp-web or is that rather impossible to realize now in version 7?

We need this behavior to minimize traffic from multi-country access through the Chinese firewall. The web-client is, as it is, under no circumstances anywhere near usable speeds for either side, so we need two client instances necessarily.