VPN for journalists and researchers working in China

Journalists and researchers working in China have higher stakes than most travelers. Source protection, encrypted communication, and operational security matter more than convenience. This guide covers the setup we have seen working correspondents and academics rely on.

This is not legal advice. Journalists should consult their outlet's security team and the Committee to Protect Journalists' field guide before any sensitive assignment.

Layered operational security

A VPN is one layer in a stack, not a whole solution. For journalists the full stack typically includes:

• Encrypted messaging — Signal for sources, with disappearing messages enabled and verified safety numbers
• Encrypted email — Proton, Tuta, or your outlet's internal encrypted mail system for document handoff
• Device hardening — full-disk encryption, up-to-date OS, no third-party apps you did not install deliberately, minimal data-at-rest
• VPN — to secure the network transport layer and reduce fingerprinting at the IP layer
• Compartmentalization — separate devices for work and personal, or at minimum separate user profiles
• Physical opsec — do not leave devices unattended; hotel safes are not safe

VPN recommendations for field work

• Always-on with hard kill switch. No leaks, ever.
• Cloak-wrapped OpenVPN TCP as primary transport. TLS-shaped traffic is the most resistant to pattern recognition.
• Server rotation discipline — do not always use the same endpoint for sensitive work. Rotate between Hong Kong, Tokyo, and a third endpoint unrelated to the story.
• DNS over the tunnel, no exceptions. Confirm at dnsleaktest.com before every sensitive session.

Payment privacy

Paying with a card creates a payment-processor record of the account-to-provider relationship. If that matters for your work, pay with Bitcoin or Lightning through our self-hosted BTCPay. We do not use Stripe tokenization for that path, so there is no payment-processor metadata linking the card holder to the VPN account.

Before an assignment

1. Read the Committee to Protect Journalists' digital safety guide.
2. Consult your outlet's security team.
3. Install the VPN before departure. Test at home.
4. Set up Signal with verified safety numbers for every source you plan to reach while abroad.
5. Practice the full workflow end-to-end at home before you need it in the field.

What we do not log

UnblockMeVPN operates on a no-log basis. We do not keep connection logs, traffic logs, or timestamped session records tied to your account. Our threat model documents what we do store (subscription state, for billing) and the reasoning. For journalists who need a paper trail of our commitments, the threat model page and our law enforcement page are both public and version-controlled.