China’s clampdown on the use of virtual private networks (VPNs) to circumvent the country’s internet controls risks disrupting businesses that depend on them for cloud services and data security.
Besides using virtual private networks to gain access to Web sites like Facebook and Google blocked by China’s regulators, companies use VPNs to ensure speed and efficiency as they migrate more services to the Internet cloud, and to ensure that data moving across those networks is secure, US-China Business Council vice president Jake Parker said.
China is said to have told telecommunications carriers to block individuals’ access to VPNs — services that skirt censorship restrictions by routing web traffic abroad — by Feb. 1.
The apparent acceleration of a crackdown comes as Beijing prepares to host the 19th Chinese Communist Party Congress, a sensitive time during which leadership reshuffles are expected and the government tightens its grip over media.
Some businesses worry that the crackdown, which for now is said to target mainly individual users, could expand and end up hurting their operations.
EUROPEAN SURVEY
More than a fifth of foreign businesses responding to a European Chamber of Commerce survey conducted this year said that existing Internet restrictions affected more than one-tenth of their in-country revenue.
“Any kind of restriction on VPNs operating in the China market would be a disruptive influence on businesses operating here,” Parker said in a Bloomberg Television interview.
His organization represents and assists about 200 US companies from Intel Corp to Microsoft Corp.
“What we’re seeing is a focus on stability moving up into the 19th congress, which is likely one of the reasons why restricting Internet access is something that’s going on now,” he said.
While VPNs are widely used by businesses and individuals to view banned Web sites, the technology operates in a legal gray area.
The Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology pledged in January to step up enforcement against unauthorized VPNs and warned corporations to confine such services to internal use.
SERVICE HALTED
At least one popular network operator recently said it had run afoul of the authorities: GreenVPN notified users it would halt service from July 1 after “receiving a notice from regulatory departments.”
Companies operating on Chinese soil will still be able to employ leased lines to access the international Web, but must register their usage of such services for the record, people familiar with the matter have said.
Yet quite apart from a wider crackdown on VPNs, foreign businesses have long complained about the damaging effects of unreliable Internet access.
The survey published by the European chamber found that unstable connections, slow Internet speeds and restrictions on access have “seriously impacted” its members.
About a quarter of respondents reported lower productivity, difficulties in exchanging data and documents with their headquarters, partners and customers, and an inability to properly search for information and engage in research, according to the survey.
In this year’s survey, 22 percent of respondents estimated that the restrictions translated to an economic impact of more than 10 percent of their annual revenue in China, compared with 16 percent in 2015.
Many foreign firms now rely on VPNs to get through to common applications such as Google Docs that employees in other countries use.
They have been known to quicken connections to cloud-based software — such as Salesforce.com Inc’s — that is not expressly blocked in China, Parker said.
Intel Corp chief executive officer Lip-Bu Tan (陳立武) is expected to meet with Taiwanese suppliers next month in conjunction with the opening of the Computex Taipei trade show, supply chain sources said on Monday. The visit, the first for Tan to Taiwan since assuming his new post last month, would be aimed at enhancing Intel’s ties with suppliers in Taiwan as he attempts to help turn around the struggling US chipmaker, the sources said. Tan is to hold a banquet to celebrate Intel’s 40-year presence in Taiwan before Computex opens on May 20 and invite dozens of Taiwanese suppliers to exchange views
Application-specific integrated circuit designer Faraday Technology Corp (智原) yesterday said that although revenue this quarter would decline 30 percent from last quarter, it retained its full-year forecast of revenue growth of 100 percent. The company attributed the quarterly drop to a slowdown in customers’ production of chips using Faraday’s advanced packaging technology. The company is still confident about its revenue growth this year, given its strong “design-win” — or the projects it won to help customers design their chips, Faraday president Steve Wang (王國雍) told an online earnings conference. “The design-win this year is better than we expected. We believe we will win
Chizuko Kimura has become the first female sushi chef in the world to win a Michelin star, fulfilling a promise she made to her dying husband to continue his legacy. The 54-year-old Japanese chef regained the Michelin star her late husband, Shunei Kimura, won three years ago for their Sushi Shunei restaurant in Paris. For Shunei Kimura, the star was a dream come true. However, the joy was short-lived. He died from cancer just three months later in June 2022. He was 65. The following year, the restaurant in the heart of Montmartre lost its star rating. Chizuko Kimura insisted that the new star is still down
While China’s leaders use their economic and political might to fight US President Donald Trump’s trade war “to the end,” its army of social media soldiers are embarking on a more humorous campaign online. Trump’s tariff blitz has seen Washington and Beijing impose eye-watering duties on imports from the other, fanning a standoff between the economic superpowers that has sparked global recession fears and sent markets into a tailspin. Trump says his policy is a response to years of being “ripped off” by other countries and aims to bring manufacturing to the US, forcing companies to employ US workers. However, China’s online warriors
RSS