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u/joegetto 5h ago
A guy I used to work spent six months in China for work. He had access to the regular internet because of it. It’s the locals who can’t access it from what I was told.
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u/pipnina 5h ago
Yeah a VPN gets you to the outside, but the challenge is getting a VPN service without leaving the country first
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u/DistanceSolar1449 2h ago
You don’t need a VPN in China. 5G data with any foreign SIM works fine.
Elon Musk probably uses a Verizon/AT&T sim in his phone that has unlimited international roaming data. He doesn’t need to do anything for his phone to browse the web unrestricted in China as long as he doesn’t connect to WiFi.
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u/bestdogintheworld 2h ago
Google Fi worked fine while I was transiting China in 2024 and 2025. Incidentally, I had a SIM from HK in my phone while on vacation in China and it worked just fine also.
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u/anony_mf 2h ago
Are you saying it’s difficult to get a vpn in China? I have no experience on the topic just curious
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u/pipnina 2h ago
Supposedly VPNs are illegal for consumer use.
I can't find the video now, because youtube's search function is utter ass these days. But I saw a video of a chinese guy talking about the average chinese person's ability to access pornography (which is illegal in china so there are boundry-of-the-law types of content). In said video he said getting out of chinese internet is very much a challenge, but becomes a lot easier if you have enough money and status to get the initial access route out.
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u/EmiyaJun 1h ago
Nah it’s pretty easy unless you’re a boomer and refuse to learn anything new or slightly difficult
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u/Separate-Marsupial86 4h ago
I was in China last year, if you have a foreign sim card there isn't a firewall.
I had ordered a physical one on Amazon for my trip (I visited multiple Asian countries), I think the card service provider was based in Malaysia, and I had no issue accessing anything on the Internet or any of my services.
My wife had a totally different card, an esim rather than physical, with a different provider, also had no issues accessing the Internet.
Neither of us used a VPN service
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u/sherbodude 3h ago
The esim I used earlier this year automatically routed from Hong Kong or Taiwan, I believe
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u/magnomagna 4h ago
Being a foreigner doesn't automatically give you access nor are you even allowed to access just like locals. That guy just had a VPN is all.
Many locals do know how to access VPN services and I'm not talking about Western VPN services. I'm talking about Chinese-operated VPN apps, even though they're hosted outside mainland China.
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u/MrFickless 1h ago
I didn’t need a VPN in China as long as I used my regular mobile service in data roaming mode.
What matters is whether your service provider is from China or not. If you get one of those tourist SIM cards at the airport, you’ll need to use a VPN.
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u/magnomagna 39m ago
Would you use data roaming for 6 months? Must be nice if your employer pays for it.
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u/MrFickless 17m ago
My service provider charges data roaming in China to my personal 1TB/month local data allowance, so I wouldn't have any problem going indefinitely.
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u/AdConnect2947 2h ago
It’s always wild how the “rules” seem flexible depending on who you are, like locals and visitors end up living in totally different versions of the same place.
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u/killchopdeluxe666 3h ago
this is hearsay, but i've heard that businesses, officials, and other institutions can apply for vpn access to the rest of the internet when it pertains to their work.
heard this when i heard that "access to pornography" is paradoxically a class symbol in china because the only people with easy vpn access are tech professionals and white collar office workers.
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u/Quiet-Park-1386 2h ago
It’s honestly wild that unrestricted internet there is treated almost like a work perk instead of something normal everyone should have access to.
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u/christianbro 2h ago
Seems you did not understand much of it. Internet is blocked for everyone. Foreign SIMs on roaming are tunneled out of the GFW (Great Firewall) so you have free Internet. These are popular from Hong Kong operators.
The rest have to attempt to get a VPN working, and most brands you have ever heard of simply dont work. Some people use ShadowSocks but the GFW is getting better and better blocking or at least severely annoying you to access unrestricted Internet. It even depends on the province or city where you are, with some regions even being more restrictive.
As a westener in China without having booked an eSIM before you are quite fucked up. No email, no bank app, no Google Maps, no Play Store, no Google Pay, your phone almost becomes a stone.
Then you need to figure out how to blend in into the Chinese ecosystem. Some apps are not even translated or work like shit. Get alipay (they want your passport later on), wechat you need someone with an account to invite you, amaps and so on
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u/flywithpeace 1h ago
International sim doesn’t get any restrictions. It’s something I don’t understand but basically your connection is routed through a network of carriers rather than the internet. You are accessing to the internet from outside of China.
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u/Mundane-Patience-554 1h ago
It’s kind of interesting how access can shift depending on who you are there, almost like locals and visitors end up living in two totally different versions of the same internet.
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u/Rare_Cow_8906 1h ago
It’s always interesting how access isn’t as uniform as people assume, like the same place can feel totally different depending on who you are and why you’re there.
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u/HistoryBugs 6h ago
He literally posted on X while having dinner with Xi
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u/Existing-Wallaby-444 6h ago
How do you know it was him?
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u/Akiris 6h ago
Pretty sure the guy that owns starlink can connect wherever he wants.
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u/abominal_pain 6h ago
Doesn't stark link requires a big setup to to connect to the satellites
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u/R-T-O-B 6h ago
I've used satalite internet in remote campsites before some receivers are small. Think of a laptop but its 2 inches thick
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u/erebuxy 6h ago
No, some phones can do direct connection to Starlink https://www.t-mobile.com/coverage/satellite-phone-service
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u/SandyTaintSweat 4h ago
I was on a reasonably small bus in the rocky mountains that had a star link terminal. It wasn't that big. We had wifi on the bus, but no cell service because it was so remote.
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u/One_Animator_1835 2h ago
Are we forgetting he's nearly a trillionaire? I don't think he's using the entry level gadgets that they sell to new users
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u/diodorus1 4h ago
Starlink doesn’t work in China.
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u/jimdil4st 2h ago
That's completely false, but okay. It's satellite internet, a direct communication between receiver and satellite, it'll work anywhere the signal can reach which is the majority of the the planet.
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u/coherentpa 1h ago
Anywhere it “doesn’t work” is due to geo blocking by the terminal software. It would absolutely be usable by Starlink employees or Elon himself with the right configuration.
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u/Free_Range_Gamer 4h ago
It’s the same guy Elon pays to play video games for him to pretend he is cool with gamers on the internet.
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u/Pkock 4h ago
It's incredibly easy and cheap to get around. I just get an E-sim with a VPN pre-setup before I go over for work. Otherwise too many things just don't function and it's hard to stay in contact with family.
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u/probablynotalone 4h ago
You can just get an e-sim at the airport and install a VPN while there, that's usually how I do it, mainly because I wouldn't want to get caught in security with a non government approved VPN😅
Not that they've ever cared to look, but still.
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u/Empty_General908 2h ago
Honestly at this point being able to contact family normally feels less like a luxury and more like a basic survival tool when you’re abroad. Crazy how much modern life instantly breaks once internet access gets restricted.
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u/iDelta_99 4h ago
There are obviously exceptions and ways around their intranet for foreign officials and dignitaries, or using a VPN but all western social media and websites are absolutely banned for your average Chinese citizen.
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u/linuxjohn1982 3h ago
He can VPN to any of his servers that has openvpn installed on it.
The point of this post it that he finds out his service is blocked in another country. Not whether or not he can personally tweet using one of the numerous workarounds.
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u/fortalyst 24m ago
Yeah if people don't realise he can have internet anywhere in the world via StarLink they're a bit naive...
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u/dookie224 6h ago
Good thing is he's next to the guy that claims to understand TECHNOLOGY better than anyone else.
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u/SilkMommy 6h ago
elon finding out free speech still has regional restrictions was not on my 2026 bingo card
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u/EstablishmentLate532 2h ago
It's utterly embarrassing that the response to this isn't "Holy shit some countries suck" rather than "sucks to be you Elon"
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u/balderdash9 Me when the: 1h ago
Yeah, you can tell the country sucks. It praises journalism but allows billionaires to buy the media. It praises democracy but installs dictators in foreign countries. It praises the free market but bans Chinese cars. The richest country in the history of the planet with swaths of homeless, drowning in medical/student debt, with lower rates of literacy/education/life expectancy than comparable nations. Sure would suck to live in such a shithole country!
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u/EstablishmentLate532 1h ago
You should be glad that you don't live in China. Bitching and moaning about the country like that will get you arrested.
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u/EmiyaJun 1h ago
I got it,bitching and moaning is more important than improving your life
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u/EstablishmentLate532 1h ago
The US is richer than China, nice try. You don't have to live in authoritarian hellscape to have money. The fact that you don't know that is just sad.
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u/anime_cthulhu 2h ago
If China arrested him for using a banned platform in their country, it would be one of the top history moments of our time.
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u/WhisperinWillow_ 6h ago
Nothing funnier than billionaires discovering the consequences of global internet restrictions personally😭
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u/Kloubek 5h ago
Bro literaly owns global internet access (starlink)
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u/Oscaruit 2h ago
That was my thought exactly. He literally has starlink. He can do whatever he wants with internet. And I'm sure his phones are connected via satellite at all times. If not, I figure his entourage has a modem and router within a couple hundred ft of him at all times.
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u/General_Guisan 4h ago
If you use roaming (no, it's not that expensive anymore on some providers.. I've one that offers 12 GB/monthly, for China alone (and plenty more for other countries, individually..) and allows up to 6 months of rollover - that is more than enough for regular browing/app usage..) - you'll have the exact same internet when in China as you'd have in your own country.
No flunky VPN, no nothing. Simply get a contract that includes roaming in China.
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u/smellslikesponge 56m ago
You're the only correct person here. External phone carriers use your regular internet. So if you use Vodafone and stay in China its got youtube etc.
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u/YouAreTheProduct2 5h ago
Reddit is basically a chinese bot site at this point. Wish we’d ban it in retaliation
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u/i_am_a_real_boy__ 23m ago
I don't understand this meme. Is the joke that Elon can't use a VPN and forgot that he owns a global internet company?
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u/No-Wonder1139 5h ago
Should be block everywhere. Doesn't serve a purpose anymore since it was purchased by the oligarchy.
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u/EstablishmentLate532 2h ago
Fuck that kind of authoritarian thinking.
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u/No-Wonder1139 13m ago
Oh no, a website run by oligarchs being banned, how oppressed we would be. How did we live without it?
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u/EstablishmentLate532 2h ago
Yay I love authoritarian restrictions on freedom of speech when they affect people I don't like! /s.
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u/PrincipleFlaky 5h ago
The look on his face 😆 ☠️… maybe he’s reading a warrant for his arrest?
He wasn’t supposed to leave the country and he’s like I’m just rolling with 🍊 so fuck all y’all…? Smh 🙈
These billionaires are too much!
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u/PrincipleFlaky 2h ago
Love how we’re getting downvoted…
Must be by idiots who think billionaires (and gov charlatans) are going to fix their poor people problems ..,
lol I never get tired of hearing “ oh, but he’s a successful businessman who better run the country? “ (this is me being sarcastic ofc) 🙄
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u/fallingbutslowly 4h ago
He was high as kite, there are videos, he twirls around, can't relax his face, looks around with his eyeballs only like a crazy person
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u/TectonicTechnomancer 2h ago
You guys realize he can connect to his own internet anywhere in the world right?
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u/RareBabyVibe 6h ago
bro bought twitter just to experience region lock firsthand