- China builds a system of internet censorship in Pakistan resembling its famous great firewall
- The two countries would have worked for almost a year on this infrastructure, which can block most foreign websites
- This occurs while Pakistan also actively tries to regulate the use of VPNs across the country
China seeks to reproduce its famous large digital firewall by helping Pakistan to build a similar system for its own means.
According to the latest online intelligence report, Islamabad and Beijing have been working on this project for almost a year, which should considerably increase the levels of censorship and surveillance in the country. All this occurs while Pakistan has intensified its efforts to regulate the use of the best VPN services.
Pakistan’s great digital firewall
While the tastes of Russia and Iran have recently strengthened their national internet capacities, the large digital firewall in China remains the most successful example of a sovereign internet infrastructure. This is exactly what Chinese companies now help Islamabad to build – the great digital firewall in Pakistan.
Such a system should block most foreign websites, de facto increasing current censorship levels in the country. It should be recalled that Pakistanis cannot access all the main social media platforms without a virtual private network at the time of the editorial staff, X being blocked since February 2024.
While the Pakistani government has said that this infrastructure “would only be used to protect two strategic data exchange points on the national network”, as reported by Intelligence Online, the authorities will be able to activate the firewall if necessary.
Allegations concerning Pakistan using Chinese censorship and surveillance technology are not new. Al Jazeera reported in November from last year, in fact, about some secret tests of “firewall” tools for China type for Monitor online traffic and regulate the use of popular applications.
Such a system “has the ability to block VPN”, “also – a defense ministry official, familiar with new deployments, told Al Jazeera at the time.
P @ sha sounds the alarm! 🚨 The hastily implemented firewall is a major setback for the Pakistan technological sector. Companies find it difficult to survive in the midst of paralyzing internet breakdowns and vpn.read p @ sha’s official stament on national firewall: pic.twitter.com/jowhzjpyjpyjAugust 16, 2024
Pakistan’s VPN repression was a question in development throughout 2024 and 2025.
After trying to repress the use of the VPN by directly disturbing the services, the Internet Watchdog Netblocks first reported VPN restrictions seven days after X was blocked. PTA shared plans to regulate the use of not registered VPNs as a means of limiting misuse in August.
The plan was finally withdrawn at the end of the year due to a lack of legal grounds to prohibit VPN, in accordance with the Pakistan ministry. A new license category for VPN suppliers was presented in December as the last offer to regulate the use of Pakistani VPN.
Whether early to predict what is at stake for VPN users in the country, experts have already raised certain concerns concerning the consequences of a national firewall.
Regarding Pakistan Software Houss Association (P @ SHA) said last year: “The taxation of firewall triggered a perfect storm of challenges, with prolonged internet disconnections and erratic VPN performance threatening a complete collapse of commercial operations.”
