← Back to context

Comment by ValentineC

9 days ago

> you need VPN

Roaming works to bypass GFW. Apparently many local employees of international businesses have a Hong Kong SIM card with generous data allowances, just so they can communicate with the outside world.

> you go outside, there is always a police or some security in booth watching you. Of course cameras are also everywhere.

My take on this is that because of high youth unemployment in China, there's a nationwide drive to hire young people as security. When I was there, I noticed how young many of the security people are.

But yeah, a lot of this security theatre probably has to do with having to manage their large population and keeping them gainfully employed.

>Roaming works to bypass GFW. Apparently many local employees of international businesses have a Hong Kong SIM card with generous data allowances, just so they can communicate with the outside world.

Isn't that basically just an IPSec VPN?

  • > Isn't that basically just an IPSec VPN?

    I… don't know. If anyone knew exactly how GFW worked (and it adapts over time), and made something that would bypass whatever blocking or throttling happens when it does, they'd make a lot of money selling their solution.

    I had difficulty using non-XRay VPNs even back to my home network, so for the most part I just used data roaming even with my laptop.

  • Usually, yes, but it's an IPsec VPN that the great firewall will explicitly not mess with in any way, because they don't want to inconvenience foreigners who are there on business.