Last year, VPN use in China nearly doubled, according to data from Techopedia, despite the country’s strict regime for internet controls on everything from foreign websites to online games.
China’s ‘Great Firewall’ is one of the world’s most extensive internet censorship regimes, preventing citizens from accessing websites such as Instagram, Wikipedia and YouTube, as well as most major news organizations, including VOA.
VPNs are banned in China because they allow users to jump the “Great Firewall” and securely connect to the Internet outside the country while their IP address is blocked.
Rob Binns, a journalist at Techopedia, said China’s increasingly strict censorship policies could explain the rise in VPN use there.
“When we look at VPN use versus what it combats, which is online censorship, we see that online censorship is becoming more strategic and surgical in a number of countries, particularly China,” Binns told VOA in an interview.
In 2021, Chinese regulators limited teens’ access to video games to three hours a week – from 8 p.m. to 9 p.m. on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays – before unveiling tighter restrictions last December, setting spending limits on video game platforms and reducing incentives for daily activities forbidden. registrations.
Binns said these regulations on minors could especially motivate China’s use of VPNs.
“With this younger demographic, which has traditionally been extremely tech-savvy, they’re always going to be looking to get around the top-down pressures from governments and find ways around them,” Binns said. . “And if that means turning to VPNs to get around that, then that’s certainly what we see.”
Analysts say VPNs allow Chinese Internet users to discuss major political issues on the Internet without facing backlash from the government.
“Circumvention tools like VPNs can allow people in China to access the global internet, including spaces where they can express themselves freely without fear of censorship,” said Kian Vesteinsson, a senior research analyst for technology and democracy at the nonprofit Freedom House, who advocates for political freedom, told VOA in an email response. “During unprecedented nationwide protests in late 2022, many Chinese used VPNs to bypass the Great Firewall and share their opinions on otherwise inaccessible social media platforms.”
Vesteinsson said access to a free, open internet potentially poses a threat to China’s ruling Communist Party – hence the government’s crackdown on internet use.
“Circumvention technology has helped create one of the most overt challenges to CCP rule in decades,” Vesteinsson told VOA. “CCP authorities responded to the 2022 protests in part by removing references to VPNs from the Chinese internet.”
“People face serious consequences when they use banned VPNs, especially if they belong to a marginalized ethnic or religious minority or try to access content censored by authorities,” Vesteinsson added. “The government is even removing discussion of VPNs from China-based social media platforms, keeping people from learning about circumvention technology.”
Analysts expect that further crackdowns could lead to a further increase in VPN use or a reluctance to use VPNs, depending on how China chooses to further strengthen its censorship regime.
“The exact nature of the crackdown, as well as the accompanying measures, will determine what effects it is likely to have,” Antonia Hmaidi, a senior analyst at Berlin-based think tank Mercator Institute for China Studies, told VOA in an email. “China has been so successful in managing its Internet in part by making the Great Firewall work not only against fear, but also against friction and flooding.”
Hmaidi adds that instead of cracking down, China could also slow down the speed of all connections outside the country, making it harder to use VPNs, and maintain an approved list of high-speed connections for businesses .
