Xiang Wang Comments on China's Decision to Close Multinational VPNs

Financial Times
August.01.2017

Xiang Wang, Orrick’s Managing Partner in Asia and head of the firm’s China IP practice, recently spoke with the Financial Times [subscription required] about China’s decision to close the virtual private networks (VPNs) many multinational companies operating in China use to access the uncensored internet.

The article notes that internet restrictions began intensifying in June with the introduction of a cybersecurity law giving the government legal controls over encryption and data flow in and out of China. And many companies fear that this increasingly restricted environment will soon prevent staff from performing important business operations.

“The movement this year appears to be more an effort to try to stop companies from providing VPN services to individual users,” Xiang said of the new policy.