Using a VPN can protect your privacy and even spoof your location. For most people, that means making it harder for your data to be monitored by your ISP and stymieing advertisers trying to track you online. But VPNs have also been used to circumvent government censorship, which can have high stakes in China. Here, we explain the issues and examine which providers offer VPN servers in mainland China and Hong Kong. We've arranged this list with VPN services that offer servers in mainland China at the top and services that only offer servers in Hong Kong further down the list. Services are listed by the number of servers available in each region. Proton VPN is our top pick overall, but it isn't the only one worth considering, so read on to determine the best VPN for your needs.
You Can Trust Our Reviews
Deeper Dive: Our Top Tested Picks
Buying Guide: Use at Your Own Risk: The Best VPNs for China in 2026
Will a VPN Keep You Safe in China?
The short answer is that we don't know whether a VPN can protect you in China. When confronted with a well-funded and state-backed organization determined to monitor your communications, you will likely be unable to hide your activities completely. This is why we stress that using a VPN in any region with repressive policies could put you in danger.
We also don't know if a given VPN will work in China because PCMag cannot test in the region. To assemble this list, we searched our top-rated services and singled out the ones that maintain servers in China or Hong Kong. As such, these VPNs are not guaranteed to work or protect you in the region.
Most VPN providers offer additional tools for operating in China. Some companies offer specialized servers for the region, designed to be accessible and secure. Some companies include a stealth or obfuscation mode in their apps, which disguises VPN traffic as HTTPS traffic, making it harder to identify and block. We've noted these additional features where available.
A few VPN services provide access to the Tor anonymization network. When you route your traffic through Tor, it's much harder to trace back to you, and you can access hidden sites on the Tor network. Note that you don't need a VPN to access Tor—it's a free service that provides its own tools. Based on Tor's own documentation, connecting to the network from within China may be difficult.
Multi-hop connections are similar to Tor. Instead of going through one VPN server, a multi-hop connection routes your traffic through two servers. The goal is that even if one of these servers is somehow compromised, your privacy will still be assured.
Recommended by Our Editors
How to Circumvent Censorship in China
If you're in a region that censors the internet, you can theoretically get around that censorship by connecting to a VPN server in a different country. This routes your web browsing from your machine to the VPN server, which isn't held to the censors' restrictions.
In practice, spoofing your location may not be that easy. VPN traffic may be blocked, or it might attract unwanted attention from the authorities—precisely what you're trying to avoid.
Note that you shouldn't connect to a VPN server in China if you want to access the uncensored internet from within China. The whole point is to access the internet from somewhere else. Connecting to a VPN server in China may have some uses: if you need to communicate locally or access a service only available within the country. It may also offer additional privacy protections, but there's no way we at PCMag can be certain that it would be effective.
Is Using a VPN in China Worth It?
We sincerely hope these VPN companies can live up to their word and provide a safe and secure service for people who truly need it, whether they’re looking to keep their communications private from their governments or simply to protect themselves from snoops on an unsecured Wi-Fi network. Ultimately, however, it will be up to you, the user, to decide if the risks are worth the benefits of using a VPN in China.
In addition to this list of VPNs for China, you can also read our feature on the best VPNs for Hong Kong if you're specifically interested in privacy and security in that semi-autonomous city.