Anthropic's China Crackdown Fuels Booming Gray Market for Claude Access

Anthropic's ban on majority-owned Chinese entities is driving a thriving shadow economy of token resellers offering discounted Claude access while harvesting user data and substituting cheaper models. The U.S. AI company updated its terms to block any organization more than 50% owned or controlled by Chinese nationals or entities, citing legal, regulatory, and security risks. The policy has closed official channels for Chinese developers, researchers, and AI companies to use Claude — but left a lucrative void.