The western view of China’s Internet censorship often flies in the face of reality. A lot of people seem to think China has an impenetrable firewall.

Bypassing internet restrictions in mainland China is a normal part of life for people who want to access the western internet. China is able to censor the Internet effectively because Chinese people are most comfortable using apps that cater directly to Chinese people, through language and culture. The Chinese government has a lot of control over these companies because they’re based are located in China.

The English speaking west is so dependent on the U.S. internet that it is impossible to copy the Chinese model.

It’s a mistake to think you need to get everyone perfectly all the time to be effective. Stopping businesses from operating legally and having your population afraid of committing a crime does a lot of work by itself.

It’s only techies who think “if I can get around it, it’s not that big of a deal”. As long as you live in a society, how other people behave affects what you can do too.

VPNs can never be completely banned because they're a tool used by businesses (nothing is more important than a business in neoliberal capitalism).