cd /news/ai-policy/how-china-s-gray-market-sells-claude… · home topics ai-policy article
[ARTICLE · art-107627] src=the-decoder.com ↗ pub= topic=ai-policy verified=true sentiment=↓ negative

How China's gray market sells Claude tokens at a fraction of the price

Anthropic's access controls against China are bypassed by a gray market of 'transfer stations' selling Claude tokens for as little as 10% of the list price, according to analyst Zilan Qian, who warns the circumvention weakens export controls and Anthropic's safety systems.

read1 min views1 publishedAug 23, 2026

Anthropic's strict access controls against China, from geoblocking to selfie verification, are being systematically bypassed through a thriving network of so-called "transfer stations." Chinese developers can buy Claude tokens for as little as ten percent of the list price. Analyst Zilan Qian warns that the circumvention infrastructure weakens export controls and Anthropic's own safety systems.

The article How China's gray market sells Claude tokens at a fraction of the price appeared first on The Decoder.

── more in #ai-policy 4 stories · sorted by recency
── more on @anthropic 3 stories trending now
sponsored brought to you by zahid.host 4,200+ EU-deployed projects
reading about agents? ship yours in a single git push.

Run your AI side-project on zahid.host

EU-based hosting, git-push deploys, automatic HTTPS, no cold starts. Free tier with a custom domain — perfect for shipping the agent you just read about.

$git push zahid main
Live at https://your-agent.zahid.host
Get free account → Pricing
from €0/mo · no card required
LIVE [news/how-china-s-gray-mar…] indexed:0 read:1min 2026-08-23 ·