A classified CAC directive treats unauthorized Firewall jumping as a political-security problem that must be dealt with.

By Probe International

China’s internet censors have declared 2026 a year of digital siege.

According to a classified Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) directive obtained by Baodian Weekly,* Beijing has launched a coordinated national campaign that treats Firewall jumping as an attack on the Party’s political and ideological security.

Marked confidential with a long-term secrecy period, the document issued by CAC—Opinions on Further Advancing the Dual Integration of Cyberspace Technology Work, Document No. 4 [2025] of the Office of the Central Cyberspace Affairs Commission—frames VPN use not as a technical workaround but as “a critical battle concerning political security.”

Whereas in earlier years the wall has mainly functioned as a filter, the CAC document deems unauthorized wall-jumping as a political-security problem that must be uncovered, tracked, blocked, and removed. Without raising the Firewall higher or implementing an outright ban, the foreign internet is now essentially licensed. Approved traffic will go out through pipes the state owns.

Under the Central Cyberspace Affairs Commission, the CAC and the National Computer Network and Information Security Center have been harnessed to fuse personnel, data, and enforcement with the Ministry of Public Security, Ministry of State Security, and the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology. The goal: “deep integration” of the internet regulator (CAC and its provincial offices) with the Firewall’s technical center and its local branches.

Document No. 4 discloses four official permitted exits for certain classes of internet traffic. This includes dedicated channels for cross-border exchanges, science and technology, economic and trade activities—plus ordinary domestic internet under Firewall controls. Everything else is a threat to be hunted.

To that end, a new “Great Firewall Circumvention Network Resource Coordinated Disposal System” has been tasked with monitoring key sites and accounts, tracking high-risk users, blocking tools, and deleting content in near real time. Authorities have been ordered to achieve “rapid discovery, monitoring and tracking, effective blocking, and timely removal,” which implies either the VPN, the content, the channel or, more ominously, the user.

The same machinery is aimed overseas to track foreign platforms for “harmful” content around sensitive political dates, mapping “backflow” of banned information into China, and supporting a specialized overseas public-opinion intelligence operation. The National Computer Network and Information Security Center has also been charged with sharing data on news sites, social media, and messaging apps, and to help trace APT-style attacks (Advanced Persistent Threat) and cybersecurity incidents affecting China’s telecommunications networks.

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*Baodian Weekly is a new overseas Chinese-language commentary site that lists Chinese Policy and Legal Consulting, a Belgian-registered startup, as the publisher.