Can you read the news in China?
Mostly no. The major Western outlets are blocked in mainland China: The New York Times (since 2012), Bloomberg (2012), The Wall Street Journal, Reuters, the BBC, and The Guardian among them, and Apple disables its News app on the mainland. Sites hang or reset on every mainland network, hotel wifi included. Everything reads normally in Hong Kong and Macau. What still gets through: email newsletters, articles saved offline, and everything, through a VPN set up before you arrive.
What's blocked, and since when
News blocks in China tend to follow coverage Beijing dislikes and then never lift. The New York Times and Bloomberg have been dark since their 2012 investigations into leaders' family wealth. The Wall Street Journal, Reuters, The Guardian, and the BBC's English site joined in waves since. The apps fail with their websites, and Apple News doesn't rescue you: Apple disables the News app entirely on the mainland. A few outlets flicker in and out; the safe assumption for planning is that your usual masthead won't load.
What's reliably readable without help skews to wire-service syndication in local English-language outlets like China Daily and the Global Times, which will keep you informed of, let's say, a particular perspective.
What still gets through without a VPN
- Email newsletters. The single best trick on this page: the NYT morning briefing, Bloomberg newsletters, and every Substack land normally in an inbox that works in China, like Outlook or iCloud Mail. The firewall blocks the sites, not your email.
- Offline saves. Reading-list apps that download article text (Safari Reading List does) serve up whatever you saved before you flew or while on the VPN.
- Podcasts, partially: Apple Podcasts works in China, though shows hosted on blocked infrastructure fail; download episodes before you fly.
Reading everything: the VPN
Through a working VPN, every blocked outlet reads normally, paywalls and subscriptions included. News pages are light; the whole game is a VPN that genuinely connects from inside China, which is where shared commercial servers on blocklisted ranges disappoint. Traveler's VPN runs you a private server with an IP address only you use, and routes the news, Google, and social apps through the tunnel while WeChat, Didi, and local maps stay direct. For journalists working in China, the private, unshared IP is worth more than the speed.
Set it up before you fly: newsletter subscriptions, offline reading lists, and the VPN all need a working connection to arrange. From inside the mainland, the sites you'd arrange them on are the very things that won't load.
Frequently asked
Is the BBC blocked in China?
The English-language BBC News site and app are blocked, and BBC World News TV gets pulled from hotel feeds during sensitive coverage. Through a VPN it reads normally.
Does Apple News work in China?
No. Apple disables the News app on the mainland, one of the few Apple services that doesn't work there. Newsletters into a working inbox are the no-VPN substitute.
Do news paywalls and subscriptions work over a VPN in China?
Yes. Through a VPN you're reading from the server country, and logins, subscriptions, and paywalls behave normally. None of the major outlets penalize VPN readers.
Can I read the news in Hong Kong?
Foreign news sites and apps work normally in Hong Kong and Macau with no VPN; the Great Firewall applies to the mainland only.
