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Chinese VPN Ownership in Taiwan

As tensions in China run high over US relations with Taiwan, we found that Taiwanese App Store users are unwittingly putting themselves at potential risk by downloading Chinese-owned VPN services. Our research shows half of the top 10 ranked VPN apps in the Taiwan App Store have links to mainland China.

Simon Migliano
Simon Migliano

Simon Migliano is a recognized world expert in VPNs. He's tested hundreds of VPN services and his research has featured on the BBC, The New York Times and more. Read full bio

Chinese VPN Ownership in Taiwan report header illustration showing hands in Chinese and U.S. colors reaching for a computer chip
  • Hidden Chinese ownership: At least 5 of the 10 top-ranked VPN apps in Apple’s Taiwan App Store have ownership links to mainland China. Only 2 VPNs could definitively be confirmed as not Chinese-owned.
  • Hong Kong jurisdiction: 3 VPNs are registered in Hong Kong, increasingly no longer a haven for VPN services following a series of crackdowns by the Chinese government.
  • Chinese state-owned investment: at least one VPN app has received funding from firms that are partially Chinese state-owned or operate on behalf of Chinese government institutions.
  • Installs: with 1.5 million monthly installs worldwide, these VPN apps have significant reach.
  • Fears over independence: these Chinese-owned VPN services continue to operate despite China’s strict ban on unauthorized VPNs. Have they been compromised and pose a risk to users in Taiwan?

The Risks of Chinese VPNs in Taiwan

Despite the lack of notable internet censorship in Taiwan, Virtual Private Networks (VPN) remain very popular on the island. In 2020, 25% of Taiwan’s internet users were regularly using a VPN. Mobile users in Taiwan installed 1.8 million VPN apps in 2019, an increase of 25% compared to the year before. Almost three quarters (72%) of all mobile VPNs installed that year were free VPN services.

A VPN is a powerful internet privacy and anti-censorship tool, but there are inherent risks with relying on third parties to provide the technology as a service.

VPN users’ internet traffic flows via remote servers operated by their VPN service, which means those providers can see – and potentially log – that internet activity, unless they implement robust measures to prevent themselves from being able to do so.

While the best VPN services are transparent about everything they do to achieve this, the vast majority of free VPNs are notoriously lacking in this regard.

This makes free VPN services an appealing target for intelligence-gathering especially during this period of heightened tensions between China, the U.S. and Taiwan. Relations were strained dramatically after U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan and was further stoked by the subsequent announcement of a $4.5 billion arms deal.[1]

The Chinese government is known to take a different approach to foreign intelligence and security data collection to western governments. As the source of an increasing share of the world’s technology, both hardware and software, and thanks to a subordinated private sector, Beijing is able to tap into massive amounts of data collected from billions of foreign consumers around the world.[2][3][4]

The security risks posed by Chinese firms like Huawei, Hikvision and Dahua are well-documented and have even led to them being blacklisted in the U.S. Serious concerns have also been raised about the data collection practices of TikTok and its Chinese parent company ByteDance.

The world has been slower to catch up to the dangers posed by Chinese ownership of free VPN apps, despite a user base in the hundreds of millions.

Internet users in Taiwan should be wary of exposing their internet activity to China’s surveillance apparatus, especially since the PRC aggressively ramped up its military manoeuvres in the South China Sea, designed as a show of force in the face of U.S. ‘provocations’.

We have been rigorously testing and analyzing VPN services since 2016, and have been investigating free mobile VPN apps very closely since 2018. We were the first to uncover the extent to which many of the most popular free VPN apps are secretly Chinese-owned, despite China’s strict ban on VPNs and entrenched hostility to internet freedom.

EXPERT ADVICE: It’s important to carefully research free iPhone VPNs before installing anything. Just because it’s top of the App Store doesn’t mean it’s safe. Our guide to safe free VPN apps is also a place to start.

Read a summary of all our research into the safety and security of free VPNs.

Most Popular VPNs in Taiwan: Ownership Summary

The following table outlines the ownership details of the 10 top-ranked free VPN service providers in the Taiwan iOS App Store. For more detailed findings download the full datasheet.

Top VPNs in Taiwan: Detailed Analysis

VPN Proxy Master

  • Monthly Installs: 1,000,000
  • Listed Developer: All Connected Ltd
  • App ID: id1025707485
  • App Website: vpnproxymaster.com
  • Support email: vpnproxymaster-support@lemonclove.net

Who’s behind this VPN?

  • Registered Company Name: Lemon Clove Pte Limited
  • Company No: 201813499K
  • Corporate Website: web.archive.org/web/20200426235855/https://www.lemonclove.net
  • Registered Address: 18 Robinson Road, #15-01 18 Robinson , Singapore 048547
  • Company Director/s:
    • Zhao Tingting, Chinese national with a Singapore address (full details redacted but available on public record)
  • Shareholder: Hero Time Global Limited, Vistra Corporate Services Centre, Wickhams Cay II, Road Town, Tortola, VG1110, British Virgin Islands

China Links

Corporate Credibility Issues

  • All Connected Ltd has been struck off the Singapore business registry, yet remains as the listed developer on the App Store.
  • Lemon Clove is not a new company. We discovered how it was connected to VPN Proxy Master and Turbo VPN in an earlier investigation.
  • This VPN company now has the same director as hugely popular free service Turbo VPN. However there is no transparency about the connection between the two VPN services.
  • This VPN company has a history of changing its registered address. The current address dates from January 2021.
  • Sole shareholder Hero Time Global Limited has only existed since April 2021.
  • The lemonclove.net corporate domain now redirects to the VPN app site, which makes no mention of the company itself.

VPNSuper

  • Monthly Installs: 3,000,000
  • Listed Developer: Mobile Jump Pte Ltd
  • App ID: id1370293473
  • App Website: mobilejump.mobi
  • Support email: contact@mobilejump.info

Who’s behind this VPN?

  • Registered Company Name: Mobile Jump Pte Ltd
  • Company No: 201933447E
  • Corporate Website: superunlimited.com
  • Registered Address: 30 Cecil Street #19-08, Prudential Tower, Singapore 049712
  • Company Director:
    • Tanuj Chaterjee, U.S. citizen resident in Burlingame, CA (full details redacted but available on public record)
  • Shareholder: Free VPN Pte Ltd (201929358N), also of 30 Cecil Street #19-08, Prudential Tower, Singapore 049712

Corporate Credibility Issues

  • While this VPN service provider does share its legally registered company name, it doesn’t openly disclose the name of its apparent parent company.
  • Mobile Jump Ltd may legally be a Singapore company, but according to incorporation documents it is owned by a U.S. citizen based in the U.S, and seemingly a U.S. registered company.
  • Tanuj Chaterjee is currently the sole director of both Mobile Jump and its shareholder Free VPN Pte Ltd. He is also the CEO of Super VPN Inc (T20UF4774F/C4596833) with the same registered address as listed on the superunlimited.com website.
  • The U.S. company website, which boasts of the popularity of VPNSuper, also known as “VPN – Super Unlimited Proxy”, is very much investor-focused and is not linked to from the product site.
    • Screenshot from the superunlimited.com website boasting of the popularity of the VPN app

    Screenshot from superunlimited.com boasting of the popularity of the VPN app.

  • Despite not openly disclosing its apparent U.S. ownership, the Super VPN Inc leadership is composed of respected Silicon Valley veterans with experience of working on privacy products, including other VPNs.

VPN Cat Master

  • Monthly Installs: 200,000
  • Listed Developer: Secure Connection PTY Ltd
  • App ID: id1134784923
  • App Website: onekeynpv.org/share/com.vpn.cat.html
  • Support email: com.vpn.cat@onekeynpv.org

Who’s behind this VPN?

  • Registered Company Name: Fourseasons Yummy Pty Ltd
  • Company No: 616 781 367
  • Corporate Website: None
  • Registered Address: 18/42 Harp Street, Belmore, NSW 2192, Australia
  • Company Director:
    • Yidi Pan – Belmore, NSW, Australia (full details redacted but available on public record)
  • Shareholder:
    • Si Ji Pang Ge Australia Pty Ltd – 17 Lotusbird Place, Calamvale QLD 4116, Australia
    • Guorui Li – Rosebery NSW 2018, Australia
    • Lyuan Zhang – Kensington NSW 2033, Australia
    • Hong Liu – Kingsford NSW 2032, Australia

    (Full details of residential addresses redacted but available on public record)

China Links

  • While the director and shareholders of this VPN service provider have common Chinese names, we could find no evidence that they remain Chinese citizens or have current links to mainland China.

Corporate Credibility Issues

  • The developer website contains very little content and lacks the professionalism of more credible VPN services.
  • The VPN website is hosted on subfolder of an unusual domain, whose root is not publicly accessible.
  • The site content is sparse, with examples of poor English.
  • There is no information about this VPN company on the public record beyond the legal minimum required in Australia where it is registered. Therefore there is little reason to trust it or its policies.

VPN Proxy OvpnSpider

  • Monthly Installs: 80,000
  • Listed Developer: WCOMES Technologies Co. Limited
  • App ID: id928941628
  • App Website: yihuacenter.com/ovpn
  • Support email: appcobber@gmail.com

Who’s behind this VPN?

  • Registered Company Name: WCOMES Technologies Co. Limited
  • Company No: 2721145
  • Corporate Website: wcomes.com
  • Registered Address: Room 1605, Ho King Commercial Centre, 2-16 Fa Yuen Street, Mongkok, Hong Kong
  • Company Director:
    • Xie Xueli – Nanjing City, China (full details redacted but available on public record)
  • Shareholder: Director is sole shareholder

China Links

  • The director of WCOMES Technologies Co. Xie Xueli is a Chinese citizen with a residential address in mainland China.

Corporate Credibility Issues

  • This VPN service provider has a dev team in Minsk, Belarus, a nation with significant restrictions on internet freedom.[4] This raises the possibility of further risks to the data privacy of users of this VPN.
  • VPN app website lacks professionalism of more credible VPN service providers.

FlyVPN

  • Monthly Installs: 30,000
  • Listed Developer: FLYVPN
  • App ID: id959012446
  • App Website: flyvpn.com
  • Support email: support@flyvpn.com

Who’s behind this VPN?

  • Registered Company Name: Uditech Limited
  • Company No: 2440430
  • Corporate Website: uditech.com
  • Registered Address: Room 1003, 10/F, Tower 1, Lippo Centre, 89 Queensway, Admiralty, Hong Kong
  • Company Director:
    • Tang Chun Sheng (唐春生), Shanghai, China (full details redacted but available on public record)
  • Shareholder: Tang Chun Seng is the sole shareholder.

China Links

  • Director Tang Chun Sheng has a residential address in mainland China, according to Uditech’s Hong Kong business registration documents.
  • There is a tech company named Uditech operating in mainland China, whose registered address is in Shenzhen, the Chinese city that links Hong Kong to the mainland.
  • FlyVPN’s director Tang Chun Seng also has an address in Shenzhen, according to UK business registration documents for yet another entity called Uditech. This adds weight to the suggestion that all these entities are connected.
  • Uditech has investors in its Chinese business that are part-owned by the Chinese government, see below for details.

Corporate Credibility Issues

  • Uditech fails to be transparent about also being officially registered in China, as well as the UK:
    • Business name:
      • 深圳优地科技有限公司 (CN)
      • Uditech Limited (UK)
    • Company No:
      • 91440300065473036M (CN)
      • 09293321 (UK)
    • Registered Address:
      • 5D, Building 1, Tingwei Industrial Park, No. 6, Liufang Road, Xingdong Community, Xin’an Street, Bao’an District, Shenzhen (深圳市宝安区新安街道兴东社区67区留芳路6号庭威产业园1号楼5D)
      • Floor 1, Office 25, 22 Market Square, London, United Kingdom
  • Uditech is partly-financed by Chinese state-owned investors and major Chinese telecoms companies, including:
    • UT Starcom: this Chinese global telecom infrastructure firm provided Angel and Series A funding
    • Legend Capital: a investment firm 29% owned by the Chinese government
    • China Merchants Capital: the private equity arm of China Merchant Group, which is state-owned

奔腾 VPN (Pentium VPN)

  • Monthly Installs: 7,000
  • Listed Developer: MC Mobile Network Security Technology Co Limited
  • App ID: id1113245013
  • App Website: mcmobile.net
  • Support email: None

Who’s behind this VPN?

  • Registered Company Name: MC Mobile Network Security Technology Co Limited
  • Company No: 2723050
  • Corporate Website: mcmobile.net
  • Registered Address: Room A 12/F ZJ 300, 300 Lockhart Road, Wan Chai, Hong Kong
  • Company Director:
    • Huang Shiming, Nan’an City, China (full details redacted but available on public record)
  • Shareholder: Huang Shiming is the sole shareholder.

China Links

  • Director and sole shareholder Huang Shiming is a Chinese citizen with a mainland Chinese address.

Corporate Credibility Issues

  • Home page is a near-blank holding page and the only other pages on the domain are the plain text privacy policy and terms of service. This VPN service discloses absolutely no information about itself or why consumers should trust it with their sensitive data.
  • Third-party store listings for the app list the developer as AresMob Studio and link to a developer website with the same style holding page as the McMobile homepage.
    • Side-by-side comparison of McMobile and Aresmob Studio homepage content

    Side-by-side comparison of McMobile and Aresmob Studio homepage content.

  • AresMob was the developer for Hotspot VPN (com.aresmob.hotspotvpn) that we previously flagged as potentially severely risky.
  • No support email provided.

穿梭 Transocks (Shuttle VPN)

  • Monthly Installs: 70,000
  • Listed Developer: Chengdu Fobwifi Networks Technology LLC
  • App ID: id1171836473
  • App Website: transocks.com
  • Support email: transocks@qq.com

Who’s behind this VPN?

  • Registered Company Name: 成都飞欧比网络科技有限公司 (Chengdu Fobwifi Networks Technology Co Ltd)
  • Company No: 510110000065211
  • Corporate Website: transocks.com
  • Registered Address: No. 172, Shunsheng Road, Zhengxing Street, Tianfu New District, Chengdu City, Sichuan Province, China
  • Company Director:
    • Chen Yunchuan (陈云川), residential address unconfirmed
  • Shareholders:
    • Chen Yunchuan (major shareholder)
    • Jiang Zhipeng (江智鹏), residential address unconfirmed

China Links

  • This VPN service is registered in mainland China
  • Its director and shareholders are therefore also mainland Chinese, as records indicate there is no foreign investment.
  • Transocks holds an official Chinese VPN license.

Corporate Credibility Issues

  • Legal VPN services in China, such as Transocks, are tightly regulated.[5] Such authorization may require the provision of a government backdoor, thus rendering any licensed VPN potentially insecure and not private.

VPN GAIA

  • Monthly Installs: 5,000
  • Listed Developer: Bobbi Lee
  • App ID: id1362645427
  • App Website: twitter.com/pholagaia
  • Support email: pholagaia@gmail.com

Who’s behind this VPN?

  • Registered Company Name: Unconfirmed
  • Company No: Unconfirmed
  • Corporate Website: None
  • Registered Address: Unconfirmed
  • Company Director: Unconfirmed
  • Shareholder:Unconfirmed

China Links

Unconfirmed – no evidence linking this VPN service to any jurisdiction at all.

Corporate Credibility Issues

  • There is literally zero information in the public domain about who operates this VPN service, nor in what jurisdiction. This is a huge red flag for potential data privacy and security risk.
  • The app website linked to from the Apple App Store is simply an anonymous Twitter profile with 3 followers, zero tweets and no other information.
  • There is no developer/corporate website at all. The privacy policy is hosted on a Github page with no other associated content or information.
  • The support email listed on the App Store is a Gmail address rather than via a branded domain, which suggests a lack of professionalism.

LetsVPN

  • Monthly Installs: 60,000
  • Listed Developer: LetsGo Network Incorporated
  • App ID: id1481327306
  • App Website: letsvpn.world
  • Support email: letsvpn@rbox.me

Who’s behind this VPN?

  • Registered Company Name: LetsGo Network Incorporated
  • Company No: 730435880
  • Corporate Website: letsvpn.world
  • Registered Address: 675 Cochrane Dr East Tower, Suite 600, Markham ON L3R 0B8, Canada
  • Company Director:
    • Hong Lei, Markham, ON, Canada (full details redacted but available on public record).
  • Shareholder: Unconfirmed

China Links

  • There would appear to be no direct links between this VPN and mainland China. Canadian business records do not include citizenship details of company directors, however Canadian law requires non-citizens to have Canadians on the board of an incorporated company. As Letsgo only has a single director, we can infer that they must be a Canadian citizen.

Corporate Credibility Issues

  • Customer service pages are hosted on a raw cloudfront domain: d1xjcgb5rp7491.cloudfront.net, rather than the main domain.[6] This is unusual and while not an issue in itself, could suggest a lack of professionalism compared with leading VPN services.
  • The privacy policy is less detailed and specific than would be expected from a credible VPN service.

艾尚蜗牛VPN (Aishang Snail VPN)

  • Monthly Installs: 20,000
  • Listed Developer: Cuicui Ye
  • App ID: id1117203062
  • App Website: None
  • Support email: None

Who’s behind this VPN?

  • Registered Company Name: Unconfirmed
  • Company No: Unconfirmed
  • Corporate Website: Unconfirmed
  • Registered Address: Unconfirmed
  • Company Director: Unconfirmed
  • Shareholder: Unconfirmed

China Links

  • No confirmed links to mainland China
  • Suspicions remain, however, due to:
    • Name and aliases of developer, which include Cuicui Ye, 蜗牛 top software group, yuzhi lin and 宇舟 高
    • Fake developer links on App Store listing for this and the developer’s other apps direct to Chinese sites such as qq.com and feng.com
    • All this developer’s apps are solely in English and simplified Chinese, which is the preferred version of Chinese on the mainland, as opposed to traditional Chinese in Taiwan.

Corporate Credibility Issues

  • There is literally zero information in the public domain about who operates this VPN service, nor in what jurisdiction. This is a huge red flag for potential data privacy and security risk.
  • The app website linked to from the Apple App Store is to qq.com, a completely unrelated web portal operated by Chinese tech giant Tencent.
  • There is no developer/corporate website at all.
  • There is no privacy policy or terms of service.
  • There is no support email.

Methodology

We reviewed the ownership of the companies operating the 10 most popular VPN mobile apps in Taiwan in Apple’s App Store. We identified those with ties to China and conducted further investigation and analysis.

We investigated the corporate structure and credibility of each VPN service using open source data available in the public domain.

The authors of all our investigations abide by the journalists’ code of conduct.

References

[1] https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-09-14/senate-panel-set-to-take-up-taiwan-bill-that-makes-biden-uneasy ↩

[2] https://krebsonsecurity.com/2021/10/fbi-raids-chinese-point-of-sale-giant-pax-technology/ ↩

[3] https://www.fcc.gov/document/carr-calls-review-dji-citing-national-security-risks ↩

[4] https://freedomhouse.org/country/belarus/freedom-net/2021 ↩

[5] https://www.theregister.com/2021/10/20/china_vpn_foreign_investment/ ↩

[6] https://web.archive.org/web/20220914150157/https://d1xjcgb5rp7491.cloudfront.net/letsvpn-world/en/collections/1628560-help-documents ↩