The Great Firewall of China.
In its pursuit of cyber sovereignty, China is cracking down on what it sees as unlawful or undesirable cross-border activities. Various departments have taken actions to circumscribe and limit the use of virtual private networks (VPNs), tools that enable users to evade China’s internet censorship technologies, most notably the Great Firewall that blocks content hosted abroad.
For now, foreign businesses outside China will probably not be affected much, provided that they operate through licensed VPN services.
Small businesses inside and outside China may find their operations curtailed, which will benefit Chinese trading platforms such as Alibaba.
The Wuzhen World Internet Conference in December may provide valuable signals about policy changes ahead.
