Internet censorship in China
China (CN) · · Atom
38
Censorship Score
Level
mediumRisk Tier
T1SevereTrend
− stableGlobal Rank
#1Incidents
—Overview
China operates the Great Firewall, one of the most sophisticated internet censorship systems globally. Deep packet inspection, DNS poisoning, and IP blocking are used extensively.
Evidence provenance
No evidence records attached to this country yet. Once probes or upstream alerts fire, attribution appears here.
7-Day Risk Forecast
Predictive AIMachine learning prediction of censorship risk based on historical patterns and political events. Calibrated 2026-05-20 via isotonic refit on 810 live outcomes. See drivers + similar past events →
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ML Intelligence
Atlas models · 2026-05-21Composite signals from Voidly Atlas's ML model suite — censorship intensity, contagion follow-risk, expected shutdown duration and behavioral peers. Model changelog →
Expected shutdown duration
~5days
If a critical shutdown occurs · IQR ±2d
Try-first circumvention tool
Generic commercial VPN bootstrap · commercial-vpn-aggregate · 53% probe success (partial)
Recent Incidents
No incidents recorded for China.
ISPs in China
Known blocked services
GoogleYouTubeFacebookTwitterWhatsAppWikipediaInstagramTelegram
Recommendations
- Use Voidly VPN with obfuscation
- Enable stealth protocols
- Avoid peak hours for better speeds
Data
Measurements880,281
Blocked count541,311
Block rate61.5%
Last updated2026-08-13
API endpoint
/data/country/CNProtocol breakdown
869K
Web
6K
Telegram
6K
WhatsApp
Frequently asked questions about censorship in China
Q01Is the internet censored in China?
+
Voidly classifies China as medium (censorship score 38/100, risk tier 1: Severe). China operates the Great Firewall, one of the most sophisticated internet censorship systems globally. Deep packet inspection, DNS poisoning, and IP blocking are used extensively.
Q02What websites are blocked in China?
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Recent measurements show blocking or interference for: Google, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp, Wikipedia, Instagram, Telegram. The block-rate across all measured domains is 61.5% over 880,281 samples. Live per-domain status: https://api.voidly.ai/v1/accessibility/check?domain={domain}&country=CN.
Q03How does China's censorship compare globally?
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China ranks #1 on the Voidly Global Censorship Index. The current trend is stable — no significant change in block rates.
Q04What blocking methods are used in China?
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Voidly's pipeline detects DNS poisoning, TCP-RESET, blockpage injection, TLS-RESET / SNI-based blocking, and ASN-level outages. The exact method per domain is in each evidence permalink (https://api.voidly.ai/data/incidents?country=CN). Methodology: https://voidly.ai/methodology.
Q05How fresh is the data for China?
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Voidly probes China every 5 minutes from 37+ global probe nodes. Upstream OONI, IODA, and CensoredPlanet feeds refresh every 6 hours. The country snapshot was last regenerated 2026-08-13.
Q06How can I check if a specific website is blocked in China?
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Three options. (1) REST: GET https://api.voidly.ai/v1/accessibility/check?domain=twitter.com&country=CN. (2) MCP: npx @voidly/mcp-server, then call check_domain_blocked with domain="twitter.com" country="CN". (3) CLI: npx @voidly/cli check twitter.com CN. All three return current status, blocking method, and evidence permalinks.
Q07Can I use a VPN to bypass censorship in China?
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Use Voidly VPN with obfuscation Enable stealth protocols Avoid peak hours for better speeds The full per-country recommendation list is on this page below.
Q08How do I cite Voidly's data on China in a paper or article?
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Use the BibTeX or RIS export at https://voidly.ai/cite/CN (also linked from the Citation section below). Permanent incident IDs (e.g., CN-2026-NNNN) are issued for every confirmed event. License: CC BY 4.0 — credit Voidly Research and link back.
Cite this data
Voidly Research. (2026). China Censorship Profile. https://voidly.ai/cn
License: CC BY 4.0 — free to use with attribution.