Just to let everyone know that Proton doesn’t work in China. They offered a few other protocols to break through but to no avail. Proton should admit this to everyone so people like me don’t buy it then learn later the bad news.
It can work, here’s an example:
https://www.reddit.com/r/ProtonVPN/comments/14g0qaw/china/jp4omw5/
I’d suggest trying different servers and be patient while the app tests the server connections.
Also there’s the following information from the team:
Hi! Unfortunately, China is one of the restricted countries that are monitoring VPN connections. China blocks hostnames and started blocking IPs of Proton VPN some time ago. Some servers might work, but if you are unable to connect to any Proton VPN server, that means that our servers are blocked. We are working towards resolving this issue in the future.
You can find more details regarding the situation on the following link:
For the time being, if you are using Windows or Linux, we suggest switching to Smart or the OpenVPN TCP protocol and trying the ‘Quick connect’ option to connect or try connecting to individual servers manually, while on Smart or OpenVPN TCP protocol to see if this helps.
In the meantime, if you are using Android, macOS, or iOS, we have recently released our new Stealth protocol which can help fight these restrictions. We’ve had plenty of positive feedback from our users in restricted countries. More details can be found here: https://protonvpn.com/blog/stealth-vpn-protocol/
To activate Stealth, open the Proton VPN app on your device.
On Android, tap ☰ → Settings → Advanced → Protocol and choose Stealth.
On iOS and iPadOS, tap Settings → Security options → Protocol and choose Stealth.
On macOS, Proton VPN in the macOS taskbar → Preferences → Connection → Protocol and select Stealth from the dropdown menu.
https://www.reddit.com/r/ProtonVPN/comments/14binab/doesnt_work_in_china/joozdiq/
so people like me don’t buy it then learn later the bad news
If you really cannot get it to work, you can also contact the team for a refund:
You may cancel your subscription within 30 days of the initial purchase and receive a refund for any unused portion of the service period.
What does even work in China besides shadowsocks?
Products for the China market are usually isolated/segregated products. Even the Steam platform has a steamchina specific folder and Eve online has an isolated server world.
When I traveled to china I bought 5 different VPNs and only Mullvad was solid enough to be usable. SurfShark had a few servers that would connect after a looong time. NordVPN, ProtonVPN and ExpressVPN were all dead-ends despite me manually configuring the client and everything.
Shadowsocks really is the only way and Proton should really implement it instead of this stealth protocol which doesn’t seem to cut it.
How could you buy it without being able to access it?
Just to let everyone know that Proton VPN does work on China. I’ve been using it for 3 weeks straight on two devices with no issues.
Works pretty well for me. About 120mbps download and 80 upload speeds on US servers. A way to have it consistently connect on desktop is to use a phone with a foreign Sim card and use USB tethering while connecting to a server. Then switch back to Chinese wifi.
Shadowsocks/shadowrocket works because it’s a chinese vpn from what I know.
I use Astrill here in China which works on the desktop consistently, but I have to be constantly switching servers with the mobile app.
In China, proton works well on Android with default configuration. Does not work on iOS. Cannot even login as a matter of fact. Still tried connecting through windscribe vpn first and then proton. Still cannot work even with stealth mode.
Only servers not yet blacklisted and shadowsocks work.
You can go with Mullvad instead which have implemented shadowsocks in some servers. Falls back to it if nothing else works.
I’ve found a few Wireguard servers that work but it differs from what network I’m on. Bulgaria has been most consistent but might be just the latest server installed so not blacklisted yet.
Doesn’t the stealth protocol just bounce off cloud servers of big domains that are not good to block, at least in the west? Correct me if I’m wrong.
Should be easy to check with tcpview or similar commands to show active connections and ports.
How is Shadowsocks so good at getting around the great firewall?
You buy it and download the client before traveling there. It’s standard practice when going to China since they’ve blocked downloading of VPNs in the stores.
what network or configuration are you using? i’m going in 2 days and need a good network for work emails and stuff like that
Commenting this from Mainland China, connected from Japan via ProtonVPN. It does work, but takes its time to connect.
What’s your config, my connection is choppy at best 
I’m in china rn and proton was working on my phone for a week before it completely stopped, but on my laptop it was working fine UNTIL I paid for pro then it stopped connecting unless I manually chose a free server. What’s up with that?
I think you’re thinking of Tor pluggable transports, some of which make it look like you’re connecting to Microsoft Azure or AWS instead of Tor.
https://gitlab.torproject.org/legacy/trac/-/wikis/doc/meek
Stealth, AFAIK, is an implementation of Wireguard over TCP (instead of the standard UDP), which looks like regular HTTPS traffic to an outsider, but doesn’t involve obfuscation through cloud providers.
Magic🪄?
Maybe it’s greater than the great firewall?
Never underestimate ingenuity.