If Beijing imposes anti-sanctions laws in Hong Kong, it could harm the city as an international corporate hub. It could also lead to perhaps the ultimate test of how the CCP values Hong Kong’s business model versus various iterations of national security: Mainland-style Internet restrictions. It is one respect in which Hong Kong is still a glaring anomaly. Bitter Winter on China’s recent actions against VPNs…
Many Chinese users use them to watch international entertainment services, but their true importance goes beyond that. Without these tools, it becomes impossible to read uncensored news, access foreign academic resources, or visit websites blocked by the Great Firewall, including “Bitter Winter.”
Recently, a series of internal notices shared online and collected by “China Digital Times” has raised concerns that these ladders might soon be forcibly removed. One document from a regional content-delivery provider shares instructions from its upstream telecom partner requiring that all international connections be terminated for business clients. The wording is broad: every IP address under their control must block traffic to any location outside mainland China. The same notice directs customers to remove any signs of VPNs, proxies, or other tools used to bypass restrictions. Those who do not comply will face immediate disconnection, data loss, and no refunds.
…For many, [use of such tools] is not a political statement but a basic necessity: they want to watch a foreign show, read an international newspaper, or access a blocked academic article. Yet the normality of this behavior is what troubles the authorities. A tool that makes it easy to bypass censorship is inherently a threat to a system that relies on that censorship.