tencent helps chinese students skip prohibitively low speeds for school websites overseas

Challenges Faced by Chinese Students Studying Abroad

A significant number of Chinese students currently enrolled in universities internationally are experiencing difficulties due to ongoing disruptions to travel and airline services caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. These students, studying remotely from China, encounter a common obstacle: extremely slow loading speeds for essential school websites and academic resources.

Solutions from Tech Giants: Alibaba and Tencent

Recognizing a market need, Alibaba’s cloud division developed a solution to connect students in China with their university online platforms. This was achieved through a collaboration with Fortinet, a U.S.-based cybersecurity firm, as reported by Reuters last July. Similarly, Tencent has introduced a comparable product designed to address this issue.

Introducing “Chang’e Education Acceleration”

Details regarding Tencent’s offering have now become available. The “Chang’e Education Acceleration” application launched on Apple’s App Store in March, aiming to improve loading times for a curated selection of overseas educational services. It is described as “an online learning accelerator from Tencent, dedicated to providing internet acceleration and search services for educational resources to students and researchers both domestically and internationally.”

Alibaba has stated that its technology focuses on enhancing network connection speeds for students, with optional VPN solutions being provided by partner companies, including Fortinet.

How Chang’e Functions

Tencent clarified to TechCrunch that Chang’e is not a traditional VPN. The company refrained from detailing the technical workings of the application or providing a specific definition of what constitutes a VPN. However, Tencent confirmed that Chang’e became available on its official website in October.

In China, the term “VPN” carries connotations of circumventing the “great firewall” illegally. Therefore, alternative terms like “accelerator” or “scientific internet surfing tool” are frequently used. Interestingly, when Chang’e is activated, an iPhone displays a “VPN” status as “on,” as verified by testing conducted by TechCrunch.

Country Selection and Acceleration

Upon launching, Chang’e prompts users to select a country from a list of eight options, including the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom, for “acceleration.” The application also displays the latency time and anticipated speed increase for each selected region.

Supported Educational Resources

After a country is chosen, Chang’e presents a list of educational resources accessible through the app’s integrated browser. This includes websites from 79 leading universities, predominantly in the U.S. and the U.K.

• Team collaboration tools like Microsoft Teams, Trello, and Slack are included.
• Remote learning platforms such as UDemy, Coursera, Lynda, and Khan Academy are supported.
• Research networks like SSRN and JSTOR are also available.
• Programming and engineering communities including Stack Overflow, Codeacademy, and IEEE are accessible.
• Economic databases from the World Bank and OECD are provided.
• Resources for medical students, such as PubMed and Lancet, are also included.

While many of these services are not blocked in China, they often experience slow loading speeds due to the “great firewall.” Users have the option to request the addition of sites not currently on the list.

Limitations and Restrictions

Chang’e appears to operate by whitelisting only specific sites, rather than providing unrestricted access to all internet traffic on a user’s device. Websites that are prohibited in China, such as Google, Facebook, and YouTube, remain inaccessible even when Chang’e is active.

The application, available for both Android and iOS platforms and offered free of charge, notably does not require users to register, which is unusual in China where online activities are typically subject to strict regulation and real-name registration requirements.

Implications of Censorship

The solutions offered by Alibaba and Tencent highlight the unintended consequences of Beijing’s censorship system, which aims to block information considered illegal or detrimental to China’s national interests. Universities, research institutions, multinational corporations, and exporters frequently require tools to bypass censorship for legitimate purposes.

To operate legally in China, VPN providers must obtain government approval, and users of licensed VPN services are restricted from accessing websites deemed a threat to national security. In 2017, Apple removed hundreds of unlicensed VPN applications from its China App Store at the request of the Chinese government.

In October, TechCrunch reported on the Tuber app, which provided Chinese users with access to platforms like Facebook, YouTube, and Google, but the app was subsequently removed shortly after the article’s publication.

This article has been updated to include comments from Alibaba Cloud.