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Anthropic’s Claude AI Tool Is Not Available in China, Contrary to Claims on Pro-China Social Media Accounts
What’s happening: Pro-China social media accounts are claiming that American AI company Anthropic is now allowing China-based users to use its Claude chatbot, suggesting the supposed move is a sign that U.S. tech companies cannot resist the Chinese market despite national security concerns.
A closer look: In May 2026, pro-China accounts began claiming that Anthropic entered the Chinese market, a reversal of its previous restrictions on allowing users from China, which it has called an “adversarial nation.” Many accounts shared a supposed screenshot of a Claude phone authentication page seemingly accepting a Chinese phone number as part of the process for setting up an account.
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For example, pro-China X user @xiongchun007 shared the screenshot on May 25 and stated: “Here’s some good news for everyone…The Claude App [Anthropic’s AI tool] now supports selecting +86 Chinese mobile numbers,” referring to the country code for China. The post received 579,000 views and 600 likes in one day.
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The same day, a Chinese X user who frequently extols the virtues of Chinese AI companies, @cryptoxiao, shared the same phone authentication image alongside Anthropic’s post calling for stricter export controls on China and said in Chinese: “Claude first supported appeals for bans, then supported Chinese phone numbers, and now the blog is writing anti-China stuff. What a bitch.” The post received 24,000 views in four days.
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Chinese X user @ResearchKONG responded to the above post: “This routine is way too familiar—corporate companies preach values out loud, but underneath it’s all just business. The Chinese market’s such a massive slice of the pie, and in the face of real money, any stance can bend. Anthropic’s latest move is a textbook example.” The post garnered 1,200 views.
Actually: Claude does not allow China-based users, and Chinese phone numbers are not accepted when verifying an account.
NewsGuard was unable to determine whether the supposed screenshot was AI-generated or otherwise manipulated. Nevertheless, other China-based social media users said that they were not able to create Claude accounts using a Chinese phone number.
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Asked about the claim, Anthropic spokesman Michael Aciman told NewsGuard in an email: “China is not a supported region … meaning users in China do not have access to Anthropic products or services.”
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NewsGuard reviewed Anthropic’s published list of supported countries where Claude is available and found that it does not include China. “Only users physically located in one of our supported locations can create and use Claude accounts,” Claude’s website states. “We also require a phone number from a supported location to create an account, and there isn’t a way to skip this step.”
Anthropic has previously banned Chinese state-sponsored accounts found to have been covertly using Claude to launch cyberattacks on international companies. The company has also restricted its services to subsidiaries of Chinese companies incorporated in other countries.
- Other major U.S. AI companies, including OpenAI and Google, also do not operate in China, citing national security concerns.
Zooming out: A January 2025 NewsGuard audit found that Chinese chatbot DeepSeek, one of the most widely used models in China, failed to provide accurate information about news and information topics 83 percent of the time, ranking it tied for 10th out of 11 models in comparison to its leading Western competitors.
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This newsletter was edited by Sofia Rubinson and Eric Effron.
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