On April 31, 2019, the Chinese government updated its large national firewall to end the use of VPNs by its citizens. VPNs, or Virtual Private Networks, are widely used in China to bypass state control. Basically, a VPN establishes a secure and virtually direct channel between two networks. Typically, it encrypts data in transit and overrides the user's IP address. By thus ensuring the security and confidentiality of information, it allows the Chinese to evade surveillance and bypass state censorship to access the content they want.
With this development, hundreds of VPNs are now obsolete. Not only Chinese citizens are affected, but also all expatriates and foreign companies established on Chinese territory, including French ones.
This national firewall, also called the “golden shield” project, has been built by the Chinese Communist Party since 2003. It establishes an infrastructure to monitor the population and prohibit access to content and websites considered undesirable throughout the country. of the national territory. This is why Wikipedia is no longer accessible from China, as are Google, Facebook, Twitter and some other 10 domain names. Furthermore, it is an effective strategy of national preference which makes it possible to redirect online traffic towards national sites and to protect oneself from the influence of American web giants.
Rest assured, Meta-Defense remains accessible in China… at least for now!