[Exclusive] The Game Beneath the Firewall: How Many People in China Are Circumventing Internet Censorship?

The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) tightly blocks VPN applications. Shown here is a computer screen displaying the word "VPN" in the search bar of the Chinese search engine Baidu, photographed in Beijing on March 30, 2018. (Dufour/AFP/Getty Images)

[Dajiyuan] In the internet age, the Chinese regime has constructed an intricate and expansive surveillance and firewall system to control what its people can and cannot see online. But how does this mechanism actually operate? And how do freedom-seeking Chinese citizens push back by climbing over the firewall?

Dajiyuan interviewed Gan Wenwei, a former Chinese developer of circumvention (anti-censorship) software who fled to the Netherlands at the end of last year. He is highly familiar with the CCP’s internet surveillance system, how Chinese people bypass it, and the inside story of how the regime profits from the Great Firewall.

CCP's Media Censorship Drives People to Circumvent the Firewall

Gan told Dajyuan that there are currently two modes of operation for the firewall in China. Regions like Xinjiang and Tibet operate under a whitelist system, while most mainland provinces use a blacklist system.

He explained that a blacklist blocks certain websites, but users can still bypass these restrictions using technical methods. A whitelist, however, only allows access to a few specific IP addresses—for example, users can access Sina.com but nothing else, making it far harder for people in Xinjiang and Tibet to scale the firewall compared to those in the interior.

Gan observed that since the current CCP leader took power, one very noticeable change has been that internet censorship has become increasingly strict.

He said, "In the past, ordinary people could easily set up circumvention tools. You could watch YouTube without buffering, play foreign games smoothly. But now, that’s no longer the case. Now the firewall is so strict that unless you rent servers from telecom providers like China Mobile, China Unicom, or China Telecom, you can’t even access the outside world directly."

He noted that censorship has now become internalised in Chinese people themselves. “Many streamers won’t say certain sensitive words on their livestreams. Even Chinese netizens who climb over the firewall—so-called Little Pinks—will use pinyin or obscure terms when insulting people on Twitter. It’s ridiculous.”

Gan recalled, “From what I’ve observed, the CCP is extremely afraid of mass gatherings. During the White Paper Movement, I was at a police station for some paperwork and overheard two officers talking: ‘I’ve been patrolling every day lately, I’m exhausted. It’s all because of the White Paper protests.”

Gan believes most people bypass the firewall because Chinese news is so bad it's unbearable, and also because news censorship is too extreme.

“To what extent is news in China blocked? During the lockdowns, I was in Wuhan. When one district protested for reopening, people in another district had no idea it even happened. That’s how complete the censorship is. To see this kind of news, you have to go outside the wall.”

He added that ordinary Chinese are not as politically indifferent as people imagine. Whenever political events occur, like Nancy Pelosi’s 2022 visit to Taiwan or the 2023 death of former Premier Li Keqiang, VPN service providers saw a 30% spike in orders on those days.

“Why was Li Keqiang’s death a peak moment for VPN use?” he explained. “Because at the time, rumours were flying inside the firewall that his death was suspicious, and people were very curious.”

Pelosi’s visit was another high point. “People in China were saying, ‘If she dares come, we’ll shoot down her plane.’ Everyone scrambled to bypass the firewall to watch the livestream, fantasising about what might happen. In the end, they saw that the Chinese Communist Party was just a paper tiger—Pelosi came and nothing happened.”

Gan noted that it’s a misconception that those who scale the firewall are elites. “In reality, most are ordinary people.”

“One of my sales strategies was to play videos of the Tiananmen Square massacre. When customers saw footage of tanks running over students, their desire to buy a VPN spiked. They had never seen it before.”

He recounted, “Back when I was learning to drive, I played a Tiananmen documentary on my phone. My instructor, a man in his fifties, said, ‘How are you able to watch stuff about the student movement?’ They called it the 'student movement' back then. He said he hadn’t seen that kind of news in years and asked, ‘What website is that? Can you teach me?”

Gan said that many Chinese people feel spiritually empty and crave access to truthful information. “Once they climb the firewall, they can’t stop. The number of people doing it will only continue to grow.”

Gan said Chinese college students also buy VPNs, though for very specific reasons.

“I’m not trying to insult Chinese students,” he said, “but from what I’ve seen, they buy VPNs for two purposes: One, to follow celebrities. Many Korean or Western stars don’t use Weibo, so these students buy VPNs to like their posts. Two, for academic reasons. Some courses require access to foreign sites, and professors will tell them how to get VPNs—but this group is very small.”

However, whenever a major event occurs in China, VPN usage among mainland Chinese people, especially young students, surges, including among many who don’t usually scale the firewall.

The White Paper Movement at the end of 2022 is a case in point. During that time, downloads of Twitter and VPN apps surged in mainland China. In response, the CCP’s Cyberspace Administration declared a “Level 1 Emergency Internet Response”, ordering a crackdown on circumvention tools. Police in Shanghai, Beijing, and Wuhan began stopping people on the street to check their phones for VPN or foreign apps.

How Many People in Mainland China Are Circumventing the Great Firewall?

In mainland China, the earliest users of circumvention tools were a small group with relatively advanced technical skills, who initially used basic proxy servers to bypass censorship. However, these were easily blocked. This situation gave rise to the first generation of dedicated circumvention software.

Bill Xia, president of Dynamic Internet Technology Inc., told Dajiyuan, “We started in 2001 or 2002, first with Garden Network, then with FreeGate and UltraSurf. After 2010, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) focused heavily on blocking FreeGate, and more diverse technologies emerged. These mainly involved setting up proxy servers overseas to sell access to users in China, gradually forming an industry.”

Today, it is generally believed that there are about 30 to 40 million people in China circumventing the firewall, primarily using what are broadly referred to as VPNs.

Gan Wenwei explained that there’s actually a big difference between circumvention software and traditional VPNs. The mainstream tools now, such as v2ray, Shadowsocks, Trojan, Hysteria, are specifically developed to evade the Great Firewall. Chinese users just prefer to call them VPNs because it’s easier to understand.

Traditional VPN protocols like OpenVPN or RTT are more suitable for corporate intranet use and can’t function normally in China, especially for cross-border communication. While some multinational companies do use VPNs, these are extremely expensive and unaffordable for ordinary users.

Gan Wenwei emphasised that although many people think circumvention is a niche market, the user base is actually huge, and revenue levels can indicate just how many users are involved.

He said that the cost of running circumvention software is about 5 RMB; with marketing, maybe up to 10 RMB. Selling it for 20 RMB yields a 10 RMB profit, and due to the sheer volume, revenue adds up quickly.

“In our 30-person group alone, we handle close to 500,000 orders per month. A single VPN plan is often shared among friends. If each is shared with two people, that’s at least 1 million users. Companies might install one package on a router, used by even more people.”

“We’re helping between 1 to 3 million people bypass censorship every month,” he said, adding that there are companies in the industry making over 100 million RMB a month. “I personally know 5 or 6 companies with monthly revenues of 500–600 million RMB. If you divide that by 20 (the average subscription fee), that’s 20–30 million users.”

In June 2023, some estimated, based on Google AdWords coverage in mainland China, that over 28.8 million users had bypassed the firewall.

In 2017, the BBC reported a conservative estimate of 20–30 million VPN users in China.

Also in 2017, Beijing Business Today cited a Global WebIndex study estimating as many as 90 million VPN users in China.

Silicon Valley engineer Zhong Shan told Dajiyuan that most Chinese circumvention users avoid political content. He estimated that they account for 4% to 6% of the country’s total internet users. China currently has about 1.05 billion netizens.

He added that many students use circumvention tools just to play international games like the overseas version of Minecraft. Foreign companies, exporters, and cross-border e-commerce businesses also form a large group of users. Altogether, 4–6% seems accurate.

The Firewall as a Profit Machine

In Gan Wenwei’s view, China’s Great Firewall is no longer just a censorship tool—it has evolved into a massive profit machine.

Gan Wenwei said that the primary purpose of the Great Firewall is undoubtedly to keep the public ignorant and prevent them from becoming enlightened, and the second is to make money.

He wrote on X (formerly Twitter) that China’s international bandwidth is like the narrow neck of a sandglass—artificially restricted. During peak evening hours, public networks are congested to the point of despair. Regardless of protocols or technology, they are powerless in the face of such limited bandwidth. Forget 4K on YouTube—just streaming 720p smoothly is considered lucky. This is when telecom giants show their monopolistic power: developers of circumvention tools in China must buy bandwidth from state-run carriers.

Gan said they must purchase high-priority bandwidth from China Mobile, China Unicom, and China Telecom in order to offer users smooth access to the international internet.

These high-priority connections, called dedicated lines, bypass censorship entirely and send data directly out of China. But they’re extremely expensive: Top-tier: 1,024 Mbps for 100,000 RMB; Mid-tier: China Telecom’s “CN2 GIA” or “CN2 GT” golden routes cost 10,000–20,000 RMB; Basic tier: Routes through Shenzhen or Guangzhou to Hong Kong (bypassing the firewall) cost 15,000–30,000 RMB.

“This is a huge interest-driven industry,” he said. For ordinary people to bypass censorship, they must go through the telecoms’ exit points. This effectively means every Chinese circumvention user is inadvertently paying these companies.

Gan explained that the telecoms don’t strictly enforce bans, not because they can’t, but because the profit chain is massive, potentially worth over 10 billion RMB annually. If they cracked down, foreign trade and open communication would suffer. “Would China just completely isolate itself from the world?”

He added, “Within the Communist Party, there are now two factions: one under Xi Jinping—radical, authoritarian, and obsessed with regime preservation—and a more pragmatic, ‘open’ faction that just wants to make money. This is why this distorted industry chain exists.”

"Deep-Sea Fishing" for Circumvention Operators

Because of the huge profits involved, Gan Wenwei became a target of what he called “deep-sea fishing” by the authorities.

On August 15, 2024, local police in Wuhan arrested him at his home. After 28 days, he was released on bail by Shenzhen authorities. However, public security officials from Xiajin County, Shandong, summoned him again—this time hinting that a 1 million RMB bribe would avoid prosecution.

On December 13, 2024, Xiajin police demanded he report for questioning by December 16. Realising that failure to pay could lead to prolonged detention, torture, or even a prison sentence, Gan chose to flee.

He posted on X that large cities rarely arrest circumvention operators, but small towns are aggressive. Leaders in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen may need these services themselves to follow international news and attract foreign investment. “But Xiajin probably made over 100 million RMB from arrests in five years—disconnecting a million people from the internet—it’s a juicy business.”

Gan Wenwei told Dajiyuan that the revenue generated by the police in Xiajin from cracking down on VPN software likely falls into three categories: first, government revenue; second, personal bonuses; and third, grey income. He said they would tell the individuals involved that if they wanted a lighter sentence, they had to offer cash. “From what I know, at least two groups got into trouble and ended up giving the officers at least one to two million yuan in cash.”

He noted that the Xiajin court has begun handing out 2.5–3.5-year suspended sentences to those in the circumvention business, along with large fines.

“My friend’s company secretary was arrested. She didn’t even understand what was going on. All her years of wages were confiscated, and she still had to pay a fine.”

Gan said the reason this crackdown is spreading is because police now wield great power.

“For example, someone told me yesterday that their Alipay account was frozen by police in Shangqiu, Henan. Today, police only need the timestamp of your Alipay transactions to know who you sent money to, including the recipient’s ID number, phone number, and spending habits. That’s the level of surveillance we’ve reached.”

Previously, police needed permission from local departments to arrest someone. “Now even a small precinct can freeze your bank card, summon you, and hold you until you pay up.”

Public Interest Tools and FreeGate

Gan Wenwei said, “I won’t deny that this industry changed my life and brought me a lot of money. But my original intention was different—I believed I was doing something good for the country and the people, helping more people learn about the world.”

He said one of his goals was to build free circumvention tools to help human rights lawyers, religious believers, and others facing economic hardship access the outside world.

Gan also mentioned FreeGate, a free circumvention tool developed by Falun Gong practitioners, which remains available today. Many have used FreeGate to learn about CCP corruption, internal power struggles, and social issues, making it a key target for censorship.

He explained that while FreeGate is usable in China, it is heavily monitored. Once a server is set up, it can be added to a blacklist.

Bill Xia said that many people still use FreeGate, though the CCP aggressively blocks it at times. FreeGate responds by allocating new resources, making it hard to shut down completely. “We face a state apparatus with massive resources. If we had more funding, we could improve the technology and expand access.”

Zhong Shan commented that FreeGate was quite good. “I first read Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party through FreeGate. I used it to learn English and access overseas information. You can learn a lot about daily life in China through it.”

“We used it quietly, calling it Flying Pigeon because FreeGate was too sensitive. It’s quite stable and deserves praise. Though it’s slow, it’s good enough for reading text.”

“I’ve heard feedback from inside China that FreeGate is still widely used. It’s slow, but fine if you’re not watching video. I still recommend it to people.”

Collapse of the Great Firewall = Collapse of the CCP's Base

Gan Wenwei said that many current circumvention users are still “little pinks” (nationalist youth), and some require years to change their mindset.

“I had one customer who used our service but didn’t understand why Falun Gong could thrive abroad, run media outlets, and put on Shen Yun performances. Later, he visited Hong Kong and saw Falun Gong legally organising on the streets.”

“Eventually, he told me he understood—everyone has the right to religious freedom, and opposing voices should exist. He graduated from Shanghai Jiao Tong University—one of China’s top schools. Even such elites need five or six years to change.”

Gan said the CCP regime is not only dictatorial—it doesn’t treat Chinese people as human. “It’s an illegitimate regime that seized power from the Republic of China.”

“Look at Taiwan—also Chinese people. Why do they live so well? They should be our example.”

He expressed concern that in recent years, even elementary schools in China have begun promoting Xi Jinping Thought. “I worry that 20 years from now, a new generation will become even more extreme. What will we do then?”

“But if we can provide circumvention tools, they’ll still have access to outside information.”

He concluded: “What happens if the firewall is torn down? A huge number of Chinese—even the little pinks—will learn the truth. Once the CCP’s base realises the truth, will they still support the regime?”

Editor responsible: Lin Yan