how's it going guys welcome back and are vpn's legal or illegal in china what's
what's the legality of vpns in china well it's a little bit of both really and uh you know let's
start with this little paragraph right here so that we can get more of an idea of what vpns
you know if vpns can be used let's say within companies because it seems like
there are some exceptions so for foreign invested enterprises in china the key to legally using
a vpn is to find and choose a legitimate authorized service provider which must be an
operator qualified for international communication business or an authorized basic telecommunication
business operator equipped with international communication gateway exchanges currently in china
only vpn services provided by authorized basic telecommunications business operators are legal
while those provided by other enterprises or overseas companies are not so what what china is
trying to tell you here is that you can use vpns that we approve of and on top of that it should be
noted that the vpn service provided by authorized basic telecommunications business operators can
only be used within that enterprise so if you're in a company and you got authorization to use a
vpn let's say for business reasons within that company you cannot use it when you go back home
so yeah it's it seems uh you know a little a little uh a little too restrictive so
but there are these these are for enterprises that are based in china so uh you know
assuming these are all let's say employees or for the employers that are living within china
because you know foreigners that go to china let's say for vacation and whatnot
there have been no accounts of foreigners getting arrested over using vpns in china uh it's it's
never happened and it seems like so right here yet as of 2021 no foreigner has been punished
for using a vpn in china uh so you know there there aren't really any uh any evidence because
china doesn't really it's not really they're like blocking vpns you know
you can use a vpn to bypass the great firewall of china very easily and i'm about to tell you guys
how you can do that in just a little bit uh but overall it doesn't seem like china uh is outright
banning uh vpns because when foreigners go there like here's the list of websites that are banned
in china and it's a huge list i mean some of the most you know some of the most useful websites are
outright banned and you know you've got google drive docs calendar gmail dropbox um you know
a whole lot even google play wow that's that's incredible so you've got facebook you know some
regular communications websites youtube is banned a lot of things are banned so
when even whatsapp facebook messenger and a lot of other things so when foreigners
go there to china it's as if they're completely excommunicated and they can't you know they can't
really uh communicate with with people using these uh very basic websites to communicate with others
so it's definitely a must if you're going to china you're naturally going to want to use a vpn
and most people most foreigners i should say in china do use vpns in order to get access to all
these banned websites uh whether you think it's uh you know justified to ban these websites or
not you know everyone deserves the right to a uh you know a free freedom of the internet really
uh so this is when vpns come in real heavy uh to kind of provide all that freedom so
you know as it says here obviously everybody knows that within china the use of vpn is pretty
important if you want to access blocked websites uh but uh you know every year i hear news stories
this is a pretty good point which i was just talking about every every year i hear a new story
about how china clamped down on the use of vpns and it seems silly that they just don't cut vpns
all together um so the answer is quite simple you see it's not a matter of whether it's legal to use
a vpn in china but the real reason is because vpns are a necessary part of doing business
and yeah this is i think this is the part where it just complicates things a little bit more
in china because you know they can't really ban vpns altogether because it's useful for business
uh and also foreigners will probably have a lot to complain about if they ban vpns altogether and
you know i'm not sure about being like being truly able to ban vpns altogether i don't think that's
truly possible so for example right here as an individual though there are a lot of gray areas
as to whether the government has made vpns illegal in china in places like tibet or jin jiang which
are pretty politically sensitive areas in china there have been reports that locals have been put
in prison for using a vpn you know focus on locals here so definitely not any foreigners going there
uh local chinese not travelers or expats so there was a news report published in early
20th 2017 that talked about the government really clamping down and making it illegal to use a vpn
and a lot of fuss was made about this uh news report what people didn't read was the fact that
china excuse me what people didn't read that the fact was was the fact that china was being
very directive towards businesses that use vpns illegally you see when businesses use a vpn
they've got to get a clearance from the government to do so they can't just use a v so yeah as we
read right here in law.china as for individuals this rule doesn't technically apply to us we still
have the ability to log on a vpn uh i say we have that ability it's not a right at any point in time
china can change their minds and they have done so in the past making trouble for foreigners who use
a virtual private network so will china punish me if i use a vpn one example of possible retribution
occurred in xinjiang at the end of 2015 the authorities of xinjiang decided to shut down
the cell phone service of any person foreign local uh or local who was using a vpn this
happened to me personally on one day while i was using my phone all of a sudden it stopped working
i couldn't make phone calls i couldn't text four days for days i would add money to my phone trying
to figure out why it wasn't working when i brought it to my cell provider he told me that it had been
shut down by the police and i was required to go to the police in order to get it reinstated
what happened next shocked me the police took my phone went through all my apps and deleted
all the vpns and foreign messaging apps and the police took my phone proceeded to go through all
my absolute telling me which ones needed to be deleted before we were able to unlock our phone
yeah that's that's just um yeah now keep this in mind nobody went to jail and whatnot so
we don't know if they're going to change their minds at some point or not but um yeah you can
see how things are a little bit complicated you know it seems like uh you know whenever
they kind of change their mind and of course it it depends on which province you're living in
uh it seems like tibet and jinjang are very sensitive areas where they're really kind of uh
a little bit more tyrannical than usual so what you can do is you know when you go there let's say
you want to make sure they're using a vpn now if you're already in china
you're probably not going to be able to access so these are the top three vpns that i would
recommend with a heavy emphasis on expressvpn specifically because expressvpn in terms of
security it will provide you with the best security and privacy and anonymity uh simply
because i'm not saying that nordvpn and surf shark don't have that kind of security and anonymity but
uh with expressvpn we have a live evidence that uh that really does work as in uh with the andre
karloff uh investigation where in turkey uh the the authorities seized expressvpn servers
and were not able to extract anything out of it as no logs were provided so yeah expressvpn has
pretty much a super clean slate very clean record and some of the most sophisticated network
uh you can find in the uh uh in the market really so yeah definitely something uh very formidable
when it comes to security here with expressvpn nordvpn and surf shark are definitely worthy
runner-ups but if you're prioritizing security and if you're in china um i would just stick to
exp expressvpn so if you're within china you can actually access expressvpn through the
tor network so no problems there uh if it's banned it's definitely banned actually if
you're trying to access it through google chrome or firefox you're probably not gonna be able to
get it but they do give you the option to access it through the onion router unlike nordvpn and
surfshark which don't have websites now if you're outside of china and you're going there definitely
download expressvpn before you get there and you can you know therefore access whatever
you want once you get to china uh so as i said it doesn't seem like you know let's say you're in uh
um maybe some of the more like hong kong for example hong kong obviously you're probably going
to be able to use a vpn without anyone bothering you i guess it really just depends on which uh
which area of china you're you're residing in or yeah whatever you're doing there make sure
that you check some of the local laws so that you don't get yourself in trouble or get your phone
disabled or whatever it is yeah it seems to be a little bit more complicated than we thought but
mainly they're not bothering uh foreigners that are going to um china and using the vpn and if
you're going to use a vpn just make sure they're using a vpn that truly has evidence and records of
working in china such as expressvpn it seems like expressvpn is one of the most effective
vpns when it comes to operating in china um so yeah that'll be it for this video really
just make sure uh to check the laws and check records of whatever
state or province you're going to in china and if you're already in china
you can access expressvpn through um the what's it called through the onion router so they do
have a dark web website and no matter which vpn you're using always make sure that your
kill switch is on so that it stops all internet traffic if the vpn disconnects unexpectedly
so that the authorities don't kind of uh know what you're doing and get you in trouble all these vpns
have a very uh effective kill switch so yeah just make sure you're using that so that'll be it for
this video if you guys are interested in any of these vpns again if you're in china i would
strongly recommend expressvpn simply because it prioritizes anonymity and security to a you know
to the maximum level really so yeah you'll find all the links to special deals and pricing and
this and discounts in the description down below and if you're looking for an overall review of
all these vpns you'll also find reviews below as well as a top three vpns video you just want to
watch one video and and kind of get the idea of everything in terms of privacy policy speed
streaming taunting capabilities as well as security and features so that'll be for this
video thank you guys very much for watching and be safe out there and i'll see you in the next one