Does AWS Work in China?

Is AWS blocked in China?

No. Mainland China doesn’t block AWS, but global AWS loads unevenly there. GreatFire, a group that tests websites from inside mainland China, answers “Yes” to whether console.aws.amazon.com opens, as of August 20, 2026, and “Yes” for the AWS sign-in page, as of October 24, 2026. For the main site, aws.amazon.com, it answers “Sometimes”, as of September 26, 2026.

AWS console in China

The global console opens from mainland China, going by GreatFire’s latest test, but that alone doesn’t prove your setup works. AethoVPN, a VPN seller, warns that MFA, IAM Identity Center, service APIs or permissions can still fail once the console loads. It suggests testing your sign-in on the device you’ll take.

AWS China regions: Beijing and Ningxia

AWS China is two regions inside mainland China, each run by a Chinese company. Beijing Sinnet Technology operates the China (Beijing) region, cn-north-1, open since September 2016. Ningxia Western Cloud Data Technology (NWCD) operates the China (Ningxia) region, cn-northwest-1, open since December 2017. Each has three Availability Zones. AWS says the two partners hold the telecom licenses that cloud services need, while AWS supplies the technology. Under Chinese government regulations, the regions aren’t directly connected to AWS’s global network, which its Hong Kong region belongs to.

AWS’s sign-up rules:

• No personal accounts. Only commercial users can get accounts, AWS says, because the China regions don’t support personal account registration. Sinnet and NWCD must verify each customer’s identity under Chinese law.
• Documents. Sign-up needs a scanned Chinese business license and a local contact in China with photo ID. The account’s network security officer needs a mainland China mobile number. Companies without a Chinese entity can work through AWS partners there.
• Billing. Customers sign agreements with both Sinnet and NWCD, and pay in Chinese yuan from a bank account in China.
• Websites. A public site needs an ICP filing, or an ICP license if it’s commercial, before Sinnet and NWCD open ports 80, 8080 and 443.

AWS China login

AWS China has its own console, console.amazonaws.cn, where you sign in with an AWS China account ID, IAM user name and password. AWS’s China documentation says it covers only the Beijing and Ningxia regions, and that password-reset emails come from an address ending in @amazonaws.cn.

Does AWS VPN work in China?

Not across the border, AWS says. A March 2022 post on AWS’s China blog says AWS Client VPN only connects a company’s staff abroad to a nearby AWS region abroad, and can’t be used for cross-border access (our translation). For that, the post says, you need a qualified cross-border line that meets the law. AWS’s guide for international customers adds that only telecom carriers, mainly China Unicom, China Telecom and China Mobile, and their authorized partners hold VPN service licenses in China.

If your company’s VPN runs on AWS, check with IT that it was built for use from China. Our guides to corporate VPNs in China and VPN legality in China cover the rules.

How to use AWS in China

Global AWS is steadiest from China on a connection that exits abroad: a roaming eSIM’s data, shared from your phone to your laptop, or a VPN. Set them up at home. Do I need a VPN in China if I have an eSIM? weighs the two.

Roaming eSIM. Airalo, which sells eSIMs, says data on plans that include China exits through gateways outside the mainland, so to the firewall you look like an international roaming user. That holds on the eSIM’s data, not on hotel Wi-Fi. A hotspot works if your phone and the network support it, Airalo says. In October 2026, someone in mainland China said on r/eSIMs that a laptop on an international eSIM’s hotspot reached their company’s remote desktop. A reply suggested telling IT first, as some remote-access setups flag logins from unexpected countries. An eSIM can fail, too: a traveler said on r/Airalo in September 2026 that theirs stopped working after a move from Shanghai to Chongqing. Our eSIM comparison shows each provider’s routing.

VPN. A VPN can go down for a day or more. On September 30, 2026, an Astrill customer in China posted on r/AstrillVPN that no server had worked for almost the whole day, and others agreed. One reply said such outages often come around holidays like National Day. Pick one from recent reports on which VPN works in China now, and test it before the trip.

AWS in China: what users report

Most reports come from companies setting up AWS China. Each is one account, not a test.

• No license, no account, July 2025. A software vendor wrote on r/aws that its project’s data had to stay in China, but AWS China’s sign-up asked for a Chinese business license it didn’t have.
• Separate partition, August 2025. On r/aws, users said a global AWS organization can’t manage an AWS China account. One added that an AWS China account doesn’t get you past the firewall to resources in Europe or the US.
• Slow across the border, August 2026. MEV, a software company that deployed a project on AWS China, says cross-border traffic was slow, worst between 3:30 p.m. and 10 p.m. UTC, while traffic inside China stayed fast. That hampered its engineers in the US and Ukraine. Parts of Docker Hub and some npm and Python sources were also unreachable from China, it says.

AWS hosting for users in China

AWS says international customers may want to run workloads aimed at Chinese users in its China regions, given those users’ experience and current and future Chinese regulations. To serve China from a server elsewhere, see our guide to CN2 GIA VPS hosts, which sell China Telecom’s premium route.

Related guides

• GitHub in China
• Microsoft Azure in China
• Docker in China
• Working remotely from China
• Corporate VPN in China