China maintains one of the world’s most sophisticated internet censorship systems, commonly known as the “Great Firewall.” To access blocked foreign websites and information, many Chinese internet users rely on Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) and other circumvention tools, a practice commonly referred to as “climbing the wall” (翻墙).
A recently deleted white paper published by the WeChat account “Guoji Beisheng Edu,” affiliated with Guoji Beisheng (Nanjing) Technology Development Co., described a “Cross-Border VPN Detection System” designed to identify and monitor unauthorized VPN usage at Chinese universities. The product is marketed as a tool to help institutions comply with regulatory requirements issued by the Cyberspace Administration of China and the Ministry of Education aimed at detecting and preventing internet circumvention on campus.
According to the white paper, the system uses packet metadata, traffic classification, machine-learning models, and behavioral analysis to identify suspected VPN traffic in real time. By analyzing network flows, protocols, timestamps, and traffic patterns, the platform generates risk scores and determines whether connections exceed predefined violation thresholds. It also maintains a database of known VPN-related traffic signatures, enabling rapid identification of previously observed circumvention methods.
The platform operates through traffic mirroring from a university’s core network switch, allowing it to analyze encrypted traffic without directly sitting in the data path. It can identify suspected proxy server IP addresses, generate real-time alerts, and create user profiles based on connection timing, ports, proxy usage, and network behavior. The white paper also highlights features such as user profiling, violation tracking, forensic analysis, and risk dashboards.
Although the original article was removed, a copy was preserved by China Digital Times.
Source: China Digital Times, June 18, 2026
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