Anthropic Moves to Block Chinese Firms Using Claude via Offshore Workarounds

What happened

According to a Financial Times report, Anthropic will implement an account monitoring system that detects Chinese firms bypassing geographic restrictions. The goal is to shut down a growing network of Singapore subsidiaries used to purchase US AI access with less scrutiny.

Context and impact

Ant Group gave staff corporate Claude accounts tied to a Singapore subsidiary; ByteDance reimbursed engineers for personal subscriptions via VPN. These practices do not violate laws but breach Anthropic Terms of Service in place since 2025, which bans firms more than 50% controlled by entities in China, Russia, Iran, or North Korea. Geopolitical tensions in the AI ecosystem are escalating — Alibaba is simultaneously banning Claude Code from July 10.

Details

• Method: time zone monitoring and account usage pattern detection
• Targeted firms: Ant Group (Singapore subs), ByteDance (VPN reimbursements)
• TOS rule: bans entities more than 50% owned by China, Russia, Iran, North Korea
• Scale: growing network of Singapore transfer-station accounts
• Related: Alibaba banning Claude Code from July 10 over backdoor suspicion