International companies can apply for VPN which allows them to legally use one. They need to attest that it will be used for business purposes; this should sensibly part of the negotiation process when investing and establishing a presence.
I'm not sure about VPNs? As I understand, it's corporate lines to overseas that's allowed. That's what we use, we lease bandwidth on a major submarine cable that goes to California and sign a contract that says we won't be using it to break laws, and Vvv we tell our employees to only use it for work.
The data has to get from office to submarine cable, VPN is needed. When logging in from home, I need to select the end-point of the VPN, so I'm pretty sure it is a VPN. This is common with any country - connecting to the corporate network must be via VPN (unless the corporate is crazy and in violation of many laws disclosing customer data).
Nope, ISP gives us fiber that goes from our PoP in Shenzhen to Guangzhou to Hong Kong (roundabout way because they have no fiber direct from Shenzhen to Hong Kong), and somewhere down the line, it hooks up with the submarine cable. No VPN at all.
If it is a loophole it is not legitimate. To keep business and trade IN ORDER it would be legal. I think some of the loopholes are “honeypot” just to capture potential intelligence.
