Alibaba bans Claude Code — but Anthropic was already quietly blocking China
alibaba bans employees from using claude code on july 10 amid reports that anthropic secretly blocked chinese users to prevent distillation.
alibaba is banning employees from using anthropic's claude code tool starting july 10, labeling it high-risk software and promoting its own qoder alternative. this policy shift emerges after reports that anthropic quietly implemented code in march to identify chinese users, aiming to curb unauthorized access and prevent distillation. anthropic's thariq shihipar confirmed the experimental blocking on x, stating that stronger mitigations now exist. the restrictions highlight the fracturing of the global ai ecosystem as us labs tighten compliance to prevent model extraction and enforce geopolitical boundaries.