Over the past year and a half, internet users in China’s Henan province have faced a significantly heavier digital blockade than citizens in other regions, according to new findings from a group of international researchers. The study, which drew from daily measurements across millions of online domains, reveals that Henan’s firewall exceeds national censorship thresholds by a wide margin—raising fresh concerns about the emergence of region-specific controls within China's already stringent internet ecosystem.
Between late 2023 and early 2025, analysts monitoring traffic from cloud servers located inside Henan noticed that internet access in the province was unusually constrained. Their data, covering a substantial sample of the world’s most-visited websites, shows that residents in Henan encountered access restrictions on a scale five times greater than the average Chinese internet user.
Unlike China’s uniform firewall system—which blocks content at a nationwide level—the digital gatekeeping mechanisms in Henan appeared to operate on an additional layer. That local filter intermittently blocked roughly 4.2 million domains, a number far beyond the nearly 741,000 websites commonly censored across the country. Much of the filtered content was business-related, including sites tied to finance, markets, and economic discussions.
The enforcement timeline observed by the researchers coincides with Henan’s recent history of unrest tied to financial scandals. In 2022, when thousands of locals protested after being unable to withdraw funds from their accounts, security authorities reportedly manipulated the province’s pandemic-related health code system to block protesters from gathering. While officials were later disciplined for misusing public health tools, the internet crackdown appears to have deepened afterward—possibly as a preventive measure against further dissent.
By using direct testing from within Henan, the researchers captured the daily behavior of local traffic and compared it to nationwide norms. Their experiment included a gap in testing during 2024, but data before and after showed persistent censorship levels significantly higher than in Beijing, Shanghai, or Guangdong.
What makes the case more notable is that Henan isn’t historically seen as a volatile region like Xinjiang or Tibet, where enhanced digital surveillance is expected. Instead, the provincial clampdown suggests a shift in strategy—where censorship tools may now be calibrated based on regional sensitivities or past disruptions, rather than purely political unrest.
While the source of the heightened controls remains unclear, the implementation points to either increased autonomy for provincial authorities or a centralized directive targeting Henan’s recent disruptions. No confirmation has emerged from official channels, and repeated attempts to obtain comment from Henan’s cyberspace regulator were unsuccessful.
Beyond regional censorship, China’s central government continues to invest in next-generation surveillance capabilities. Recent presentations from the Ministry of Public Security showcased tools designed to monitor users of encrypted services like VPNs and Telegram. Authorities claimed their systems had collected tens of billions of messages—hinting at a surveillance architecture that’s not only broadening but becoming increasingly precise through artificial intelligence.
These new tools, while helping authorities tighten control, may also equip digital rights researchers with the ability to test censorship more effectively. The same AI models that enhance state surveillance could, in theory, support counter-censorship strategies by identifying patterns and weaknesses in firewall configurations.
The broader implication is that internet regulation in China may no longer be uniform. Instead, provinces like Henan could serve as test beds for targeted enforcement—marking a shift from centralized censorship to a more layered, localized approach.
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Between late 2023 and early 2025, analysts monitoring traffic from cloud servers located inside Henan noticed that internet access in the province was unusually constrained. Their data, covering a substantial sample of the world’s most-visited websites, shows that residents in Henan encountered access restrictions on a scale five times greater than the average Chinese internet user.
Unlike China’s uniform firewall system—which blocks content at a nationwide level—the digital gatekeeping mechanisms in Henan appeared to operate on an additional layer. That local filter intermittently blocked roughly 4.2 million domains, a number far beyond the nearly 741,000 websites commonly censored across the country. Much of the filtered content was business-related, including sites tied to finance, markets, and economic discussions.
The enforcement timeline observed by the researchers coincides with Henan’s recent history of unrest tied to financial scandals. In 2022, when thousands of locals protested after being unable to withdraw funds from their accounts, security authorities reportedly manipulated the province’s pandemic-related health code system to block protesters from gathering. While officials were later disciplined for misusing public health tools, the internet crackdown appears to have deepened afterward—possibly as a preventive measure against further dissent.
By using direct testing from within Henan, the researchers captured the daily behavior of local traffic and compared it to nationwide norms. Their experiment included a gap in testing during 2024, but data before and after showed persistent censorship levels significantly higher than in Beijing, Shanghai, or Guangdong.
What makes the case more notable is that Henan isn’t historically seen as a volatile region like Xinjiang or Tibet, where enhanced digital surveillance is expected. Instead, the provincial clampdown suggests a shift in strategy—where censorship tools may now be calibrated based on regional sensitivities or past disruptions, rather than purely political unrest.
While the source of the heightened controls remains unclear, the implementation points to either increased autonomy for provincial authorities or a centralized directive targeting Henan’s recent disruptions. No confirmation has emerged from official channels, and repeated attempts to obtain comment from Henan’s cyberspace regulator were unsuccessful.
Beyond regional censorship, China’s central government continues to invest in next-generation surveillance capabilities. Recent presentations from the Ministry of Public Security showcased tools designed to monitor users of encrypted services like VPNs and Telegram. Authorities claimed their systems had collected tens of billions of messages—hinting at a surveillance architecture that’s not only broadening but becoming increasingly precise through artificial intelligence.
These new tools, while helping authorities tighten control, may also equip digital rights researchers with the ability to test censorship more effectively. The same AI models that enhance state surveillance could, in theory, support counter-censorship strategies by identifying patterns and weaknesses in firewall configurations.
The broader implication is that internet regulation in China may no longer be uniform. Instead, provinces like Henan could serve as test beds for targeted enforcement—marking a shift from centralized censorship to a more layered, localized approach.
Read next:
• Exposed Personal Data Enabled 72% Of Elder Fraud Cases
• The Software Skills Shaping Tech Careers in 2025
