A notice circulating on Chinese social media claims that state-owned enterprises in Shandong Province have been instructed to investigate employees’ use of Anthropic’s Claude Code and other foreign AI coding assistants and replace them with domestic alternatives. The notice alleges that Claude Code contains a hidden detection mechanism that identifies users in China’s time zone or those accessing the service through proxy servers and transmits related information back to Anthropic’s servers.
The directive reportedly originated from provincial cyberspace authorities and was distributed throughout Shandong’s state-owned enterprise system. It follows a July 8 advisory issued by China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, which warned that certain versions of Claude Code contained a potential “security backdoor” and recommended uninstalling or upgrading the affected software.
Chinese technology media reported that reverse engineering found Claude Code collected information such as users’ system time zones and proxy settings and attached hidden markers to certain network connections. However, a Chinese network engineer said such behavior does not necessarily indicate the existence of a backdoor, noting that many software products collect similar information for security and anti-abuse purposes. He argued that Beijing demands Chinese software to set up “backdoor” but warns about foreign software for “backdoor” activity, to reinforce public distrust of foreign technology.
Chinese technology media reported that reverse engineering found Claude Code collected information such as users’ system time zones and proxy settings and attached hidden markers to certain network connections. However, a Chinese network engineer said such behavior does not necessarily indicate the existence of a backdoor, noting that many software products collect similar information for security and anti-abuse purposes. He argued that while Beijing requires domestic software to incorporate “backdoors,” it simultaneously portrays similar data collection by foreign software as evidence of espionage or security risks, reinforcing public distrust of foreign technology.
Source: Epoch Times, July 18, 2026
https://www.epochtimes.com/b5/26/7/17/n14811411.htm/amp