Dr. Dennis-Kenji Kipker, a specialist in this field and a scientific director at the Institute for Information, Health and Medical Law (IGMR) attached to the University of Bremen, has been able to offer some reassurance.

Writing in the magazine Fachzeitschrift Datenschutz und Datensicherheit he reports: “In concrete terms, existing VPN links will be unaffected and will continue to operate. Only online providers or connections deemed illegal will be affected. There will be no full-scale or arbitrary closure or disruption of VPN.

It therefore follows that those VPN tunnels which have operated without coming into conflict with the authorities or proving contentious in any way will be able to operate smoothly as before under the Chinese government’s new cyber security laws.”

The expert opinion of Dr. Dennis-Kenji Kipker in brief? “I have concluded that, at least with respect to the issue of VPNs and China, companies in Germany and the rest of the EU can relax.”