CHINA AND VPN: IS THE ENCRYPTED CONNECTION REALLY SAFE? PERVASIVE CONTROL AND THE ILLUSION OF SHELTER Anyone who runs a foreign policy website has likely noticed lately that more and more people are using VPNs. This is a tangible sign that no one, deep down, trusts their own government, whether it is an autocracy or a democracy. In the West, however, the majority of the population believes they are free and uses VPNs sporadically, often only to bypass geo-blocking, conduct financial transactions, or out of excessive prudence. In China, more and more citizens use them systematically, even several times a week. Even a small geopolitics site like this one has seen a sharp decrease in visits from China and a proportional increase in visits from Hong Kong. The former British colony is geographically close to mainland China, which means low latency and high connection speed. This is why it is chosen by many Chinese. In the last three months, visits from this location have quintupled. It is t...