State-approved VPNs, which are relatively easy for authorities to surveil, are still permitted. At the same time, it’s become harder for outside observers to estimate the number of wall-jumpers in the country. Given how much effort Beijing expends on identifying and blocking unsanctioned VPN traffic, we suspect that China’s internet bureaucracy has a reasonable estimate but it does not share this information with the public.
fredag 12. juni 2026
Leaked Documents Show the Success of China’s VPN Crackdown
As long as Beijing has been censoring content online, people in China have been finding ways around that censorship. Such “wall-jumpers” used to have a relatively easy time getting their hands on the necessary digital tools. Often, this was in the form of a VPN, or virtual private network, which disguises a user’s ultimate online destination to any censor who might be snooping in. In recent years, however, Beijing has cracked down on VPNs, making them less readily accessible to average internet users.
State-approved VPNs, which are relatively easy for authorities to surveil, are still permitted. At the same time, it’s become harder for outside observers to estimate the number of wall-jumpers in the country. Given how much effort Beijing expends on identifying and blocking unsanctioned VPN traffic, we suspect that China’s internet bureaucracy has a reasonable estimate but it does not share this information with the public.
State-approved VPNs, which are relatively easy for authorities to surveil, are still permitted. At the same time, it’s become harder for outside observers to estimate the number of wall-jumpers in the country. Given how much effort Beijing expends on identifying and blocking unsanctioned VPN traffic, we suspect that China’s internet bureaucracy has a reasonable estimate but it does not share this information with the public.