‘It’s becoming more difficult finding stable VPNs’ – China increases crackdown on VPN usage

• New independent research suggests China is increasing its crackdown on VPN use
• One censorship expert suggested that a new censorship effort began in April
• Outbound web traffic remains incredibly low in China

New independent research and reports from mainland China suggest that the Chinese government is increasing its suppression of VPN use.

Research from the Global Public Policy Institute (GPPI) focused on the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR) in northwestern China estimates that, at most, 4% of all outbound internet traffic was via VPN to a banned website in an average week.

The report was compiled over a period of months from more than 100,000 documents sourced from the Chinese company Geedge Networks.

China is well known for its internet censorship policies, and many major Western websites are banned or very hard to access through officially sanctioned networks.

The GPPI research also notes that the XUAR may be something of an outlier compared to the rest of mainland China due to ongoing oppression of the native Uyghur population, leading to increased caution and self-censorship.

Still, this estimate puts VPN usage at much lower levels than we see in the West. According to NordVPN’s 2025 VPN Survey, VPN use hit 29 per cent of the total population in the US and UK in 2025.

The research report reads: “Whether through technical means or through intimidation, Beijing has successfully dampened citizens’ ability to access a lot of the foreign platforms many people outside China use without a second thought.”

A recent report by Australia’s ABC News (no relation to the American network) suggests that Beijing initiated a new effort against VPN use in April 2026.

Speaking to ABC, US-based censorship analyst Eric Liu said that network providers in China were asked to block all VPN services from accessing their networks.

He added that VPNs would be suppressed at certain points in the calendar to limit communication, such as around the anniversary of the Tiananmen Square incident on June 4.

China’s telecom industry is highly centralized, and the authoritarian nature of its government means that official access to user information is both common and publicly known.

The ABC report also includes interviews with two people affected by increasing government pressure on VPNs. Both used anonymous pseudonyms.

Lin used a VPN to stay across celebrity news and updates on Instagram while in high school, but found that the same VPN was much less reliable when she returned to China from college studies in Austria.

Hong Kong resident Billy told ABC that the VPNs he relies on during visits to mainland China were becoming harder to access: “It’s becoming more difficult finding stable VPNs – China recently is very active on banning VPN services.”

Indeed, GPPI’s report found an uptick in WhatsApp use between May and June 2023, when authorities would be on “high alert” for mention of the infamous incident, but traffic to WhatsApp still only accounted for 2 per cent of outbound internet traffic in said period.

Are VPN’s available in China?

When we talk about China cracking down on VPNs, we should be clear that we’re talking about those that Chinese authorities deem to be unauthorized.

VPNs are technically available in China, but typically allow government oversight of all traffic, and may require special permission to access.

GPPI’s report identifies that businesses are allowed to use VPNs to access otherwise banned productivity apps – allowing Chinese and, say, American businesspeople to collaborate on a Google Docs file.

However, the things we consider when we talk about the best VPNs – security, and the ability to turn away prying eyes from your online activity – are not a given with China’s state-sanctioned options.

How does China stop people from accessing the wider internet?

China’s infamous Great Firewall blocks a large number of the websites and apps the rest of the world rely on. The methods by which the government enforces this policy vary from dissuasion to intimidation.

On the lighter side of the coin, China partners with and otherwise encourages native developers to produce apps and online services for the Chinese population. Where the west has WhatsApp, Facebook, and YouTube, China has WeChat, Bebo, and Douyin.

Then there are the technical methods, which, as ABC touches on, much of the Chinese population do not understand, and can not surpass without using banned methods, like unauthorized VPNs.

Finally, there are more punitive measures. The GPPI report links to a New Yorker investigation, which found that one man in Xinjiang was detained in a crowded prison for having WhatsApp installed on his phone.

Why is China cracking down on VPNs?

The Great Firewall is far from a new phenomenon – for as long as China has had internet access, it’s been subject to oversight by the central government.

As TechRadar recently reported, VPN usage is getting more popular in the UK and is seeing steady growth worldwide. China’s latest crackdowns might be an effort to suppress a similar wave of popularity on home soil.

Billy, who spoke to ABC News, added that he previously used LetsVPN in mainland China – but in April, LetsVPN suspended services in the region due to “the impact of continuous internet blockage”.

VPNs are ultimately businesses, and by making them more difficult to use, China can strangle cash flow to smaller providers and engender these kinds of shutdowns.

And with fewer and fewer options available, more of China’s 1.4 billion residents will need to rely on heavily surveilled and readily censored government channels for their internet needs.