Top 4 VPNs for China

China has long been known for its strict censorship of the Internet space. However, when the pandemic began, the government began to impose new restrictions. Therefore, if you plan to visit China in the near future, it is worth thinking about a quality VPN service.

The great Chinese firewall copes well with its task. It prevents citizens of the Celestial Empire to use foreign services and sites, except those approved by the government. Therefore, most conventional VPNs will be useless against the Chinese firewall.

What is the great Chinese firewall?

So as not to bore the reader with complicated terms, suffice it to say that it is a system of strict censorship of all foreign Internet. It successfully blocks access to foreign services, sites and applications for anyone in China. YouTube, Netflix, Wikipedia, Google, Instagram – these services are all unavailable in China. They are replaced by their Chinese counterparts or by services created specifically for the Chinese market. For example, Google, which has been trying to develop a special censored version of its search engine for China.

The name of the great Chinese firewall, of course, is unofficial, but it reflects well the essence of this system. The government managed to develop a really powerful system to control traffic within the country, as well as effectively block access to services. The main reason for the introduction is political, since the government does not need information that is inconvenient for the Party to disseminate on the Internet.

Development of the first prototypes of the great Chinese firewall began 20 years ago, when Chinese citizens began to have mass access to the Internet. Cybersecurity experts can’t tell you exactly how China’s censorship system works, because it’s constantly improving and changing. There are a lot of variables to consider in order to circumvent it: region, time of login, ISP and others.

Firewall successfully blocks most of the existing VPNs, but some are able to look behind the “Chinese wall”. Below we will talk about the most popular services that will help to freely use foreign sites and resources, despite China’s strict censorship.

1. ExpressVPN – high speed, reliability and security
ExpressVPN is considered one of the best services, especially when it comes to circumventing the Chinese firewall. It guarantees a fast connection and complete anonymity of the user in the network. It is also worth noting a number of additional features, which sometimes do not have competitors.

The main advantage is more than 3,000 servers, in 90 countries and 160 regions around the world. Some of them are located in countries that are relatively close to China: Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore. Geographical proximity affects the speed of connection – the closer, the faster.

Servers support obfuscation technology, which in turn makes it easy to bypass various restrictions, at the same time completely hiding user traffic. The system won’t even detect the fact that a person is using a VPN to log into the network.

ExpressVPN supports strong 256-bit encryption (AES), which is currently used by government services in the United States. Additionally, there is powerful protection against IP/DNS leaks. The system will not be able to detect the user’s location and traffic. In case of connection problems, VPN offers an option to automatically disconnect the Internet. It will keep data leaks at bay, which will be especially useful in China. Another useful feature is split tunneling, which allows you to assign a connection method for each application: using a VPN or through regular servers.

ExpressVPN never saves browsing history because it strictly follows the policy of not saving logs. The servers use the TrustedServer technology when all information is written to RAM, not to hard drives.

Important features of ExpressVPN service:

– obfuscated servers;
– 256-bit encryption;
– high connection speed;
– fast bypassing the Great Firewall;
– wiping all data after every connection session;
– 30 days for a refund;
– works with streaming services (SHOWTIME, Hulu, Amazon Prime Video, Netflix and others);
– Russian language support;
– compatibility with all popular platforms (MacOS, Android, Windows, etc.).

2. VyprVPN – a set of unique tools for better speed and security
VyprVPN service will provide complete anonymity in the network, which is the most important for safe work in China. Among other things, this VPN guarantees high speed, so you won’t have to wait for long downloads and watch movies with constant interruptions for buffering.

VyprVPN owns 700 servers around the world, which ensures smooth operation. Some of them are hosted in China’s neighboring countries and regions: Hong Kong, Japan, and Taiwan. In total, the network includes more than 300,000 IP addresses.

High connection speeds are ensured by dynamic server switching, because the technology makes it possible to bypass unavailable or overloaded servers. The security of requests is ensured by a proprietary DNS service, which eliminates the need to involve a third party. No logs are stored, according to the privacy policy. There is a proprietary VyprVPN Chameleon protocol to bypass the Great Firewall.

Important features of the VyprVPN service:

– high-end encryption;
– Automatic traffic blocking on connection break;
– automatic inclusion when connecting to new Wi-Fi networks;
– 30 days for a refund;
– high connection speed;
– non-saving logs policy;
– proprietary VyprVPN Chameleon protocol;
– support for streaming platforms (ESPN, Netflix, Netflix, and others);
– Supports popular systems (macOS, Android, Windows, iOS, and others).

3. hide.me – another worthy service with high speed.
The service infrastructure includes more than 2000 servers located in 40 countries. Don’t worry because hide.me provides excellent anonymity and speed. The above servers are located in Japan, Hong Kong, Vietnam, Taiwan. This is very close to China, so the connection speed is high. But there is one thing – you can use these servers only if you have a premium plan. Users with a premium rate will get protection against IP leaks, unlimited data, automatic disconnection of the Internet. The free version will provide a connection only through servers located in the U.S., the Netherlands, Canada and Germany.

The service also supports flexible switching between servers for greater speed. Logs are not saved. When using in China, sometimes small glitches in the service: hangs, delays.

Important features of the hide.me service:

– 256-bit encryption;
– 30 days for a refund;
– non-saving logs;
– premium rate;
– auto-disconnect function;
– support for streaming platforms (Sky Go, Netflix, Hulu and others);
– support for popular systems (Android, iOS, macOS, Windows, etc.).

4. ProtonVPN – a wide range of rates and features
If you’re looking for an affordable yet reliable VPN, then Proton is worth a closer look. It won’t affect the connection speed at all, while providing complete anonymity. However, keep in mind that the functionality of the free plan is cut: low speed, you can connect only one device, a limited list of servers (USA, Germany, Japan, Netherlands).

To work in China, it is recommended to connect through the servers of Japan, because geographically it is close to China. Paid subscription has a rich functionality: more than 60 servers in 60 countries, high speed, support for Secure Core VPN and P2P/BitTorrent. With the first technology, all traffic is routed to multiple servers for better performance.

In order to download large amounts of data and comfortably watch videos, the user will have to buy a paid plan. There is also a tariff where Tor technology is used for more anonymity.

Important features of the ProtonVPN service:

– 256-bit encryption;
– 30 days for a refund;
– You can connect up to 10 devices on a paid plan;
– built-in ad blocker;
– a lot of different tariffs;
– support for non-saving logs policy;
– supports popular services (YouTube, Google, WhatsApp, Kodi and others);
– compatible with most systems (iOS, Linux, macOS, Windows and others).

Bottom line

Technically, the Chinese government and legislation do not prohibit the use of various VPNs. It’s just that many of them are useless in front of the great Chinese firewall, but they are not illegal. Taiwan and Hong Kong are considered regions belonging to the PRC, and the firewall does not apply to these territories. Therefore, a VPN is not necessary here, only as an additional security measure.

Everyone who is going to China is better to take care of a reliable VPN service in advance. To overcome the powerful, but all-powerful Chinese firewall services described in the article will help.

12.02.22

Written by: Carl J. Jones