In Summary. Posted: . 9:32 AM Pacific Daylight Time, July 4th, 2026. Starting on July 10, Alibaba will prohibit its employees from utilizing the programming tool Claude Code, as reported by various sources. In addition, Anthropic has previously restricted the use of its models by Chinese firms and any foreign entities affiliated with them. It has been reported that the firm is endeavoring to seal gaps that permit Chinese users to access Claude. A recent Reddit post suggests that part of this effort entailed a variant of Claude Code that could covertly recognize Chinese users. Thariq Shihipar from Anthropic stated in a X post that they initiated an experiment in March aimed at stopping account misuse by unauthorized resellers and safeguarding against distillation. (Distillation is a technique where AI models learn from the outputs of other models.). “The team has implemented more effective safeguards since that time and we were planning to remove this for some time,” Shihipar stated. Notwithstanding, it has been reported that Alibaba has categorized Claude Code as high-risk software and is directing staff to utilize the organization’s proprietary Qoder tool in its stead.
