Anthropic is tightening restrictions on Chinese companies accessing its Claude AI models by closing workarounds involving foreign subsidiaries, cloud platforms, and VPNs. The latest change extends earlier rules that blocked direct commercial access from China and now targets ownership structures and “transfer station” services that relay traffic to overseas Claude accounts. Firms including Ant Group have accessed Claude via overseas entities, with Ant reportedly giving staff corporate Claude accounts tied to a Singapore-based subsidiary, while ByteDance reimbursed engineers for personal Claude subscriptions bought with VPN access. These practices violate Anthropic’s terms of service, which prohibit Chinese companies and foreign entities under their control from using Claude. Anthropic now plans to monitor accounts for signals like computer time zones and usage patterns to detect “transfer stations” for China-linked firms. A person briefed on the policy said the company wants to shut down a network of Singapore subsidiaries used to buy U.S. AI technology. Anthropic’s public policy shift started in 2025, when it updated its terms to block any company more than 50% owned by entities in unsupported regions such as China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea. In February 2026, CEO Dario Amodei said the company had “forgone several hundred million dollars in revenue” by cutting off Claude for firms linked to the Chinese Communist Party and stopping CCP-sponsored cyberattacks.