Which VPNs work in 
China?
As of Aug 11, 2026, 1 of 10 VPNs we track are verified working in China.
Verified working in China right now
- Astrill (low confidence, StealthVPN (TCP mode) required; install and sign up before arrival (website confirmed blocked in-country, OONI, daily through 2026-08-10); occasional server switching expected.)
The situation in China
As of August 11, 2026, Astrill remains the only VPN we track as working in China, with StealthVPN still passing the firewall's protocol filters, though our confidence dropped to low because no fresh in-country confirmation could be reached this pass. NordVPN's manual-configuration workaround was recently blocked on Windows per the vendor's own support pages, leaving manual paths on Android and iOS only. Mullvad, Proton, Surfshark, Windscribe and PureVPN stay partially working behind obfuscation, with vendor sites (and in Windscribe's case the API host) blocked in-country, so everything must be installed before arrival. CyberGhost and Private Internet Access remain blocked with no obfuscation fallback.
Full status table for China
| VPN | Status | Confidence | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| NordVPN | degraded | medium | All native apps blocked per vendor. Windows: vendor now says manual server configurations are also blocked ('recently'), leaving no documented Windows workaround. Android and iOS keep a vendor-documented manual IKEv2/IPsec path via strongSwan (import certificate, MTU 1280, block IPv6, service credentials from the Nord Account dashboard). Obfuscated servers connect intermittently; expect server rotation. |
| Private Internet Access | blocked | medium | Vendor acknowledges regions that actively block its VPN traffic and China remains one; no dedicated China obfuscation mode. Website block is ISP-dependent: DNS/TLS interference on China Telecom, China Unicom, CERNET and China Mobile Shanghai, but the site is mostly reachable on Guangdong Mobile (AS9808). |
| CyberGhost | blocked | medium | No obfuscation mode exists, so no workaround path. Website DNS/connectivity-blocked on China Telecom (AS4134), China Unicom (AS4837), CERNET (AS4538) and Shanghai Mobile (AS24400) per OONI; reachable only on China Mobile Guangdong (AS9808), which does not imply the tunnel works. No positive in-country user report found since mid-2024. |
| Windscribe | degraded | low | Only Stealth or WStunnel (port 443) in Manual mode have a chance per vendor guidance (KB updated 2025-11-28). Site and API host are both blocked in-country on China Mobile, so install, log in, and fetch the server list before entering China. |
| Mullvad | degraded | low | OpenVPN and its bridge mode were removed 2026-01-15; obfuscation now means Shadowsocks over WireGuard, QUIC, LWO or UDP-over-TCP. Vendor guidance (updated 2026-04-22) says the GFW blocks all Mullvad servers in Asia; connect to US or EU servers and try the obfuscation methods one by one. In-country reports put connect success around 50 percent with low speeds. |
| Astrill | working (unconfirmed since Aug 11, 2026) | low | StealthVPN (TCP mode) required; install and sign up before arrival (website confirmed blocked in-country, OONI, daily through 2026-08-10); occasional server switching expected. |
| ExpressVPN | unverified | low | Vendor china-status page (still dated 2026-02-04, unchanged as of 2026-08-11) advises cycling protocols: Automatic, then Lightway-UDP, Lightway-TCP, WireGuard, OpenVPN, and warns connections may take longer than usual. No newer method guidance exists. |
| Surfshark | degraded | low | NoBorders + Camouflage (OpenVPN TCP) work intermittently; vendor's China support article (updated 2026-05-11) now recommends manual WireGuard configs when the app cannot connect; install before arrival (surfshark.com confirmed blocked in-country per OONI); expect server and protocol fiddling, results vary by ISP and city. |
| Proton VPN | degraded | medium | Stealth protocol + Alternative Routing required, installed before arrival; connections intermittent (July 2026 testing on file put success around 3 in 10 attempts; nothing found this cycle contradicts that). |
| PureVPN | degraded | low | Install before arrival (site blocked on China Telecom, Unicom, CERNET; China Mobile AS9808 clean); enable obfuscated servers; expect ISP-dependent results and server switching. Vendor's own China guide admits it 'cannot promise uninterrupted access.' |
Legal status: Only government-licensed VPNs are legal in China; the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology banned unlicensed VPNs in 2017, unauthorized services are blocked, and authorities have penalized individual users. (source)