China Issues Danger Warning, Blocks US-Made Products

Alibaba has reportedly banned all employees from using Claude Code, an artificial intelligence-based programming tool developed by Anthropic, effective 10 July. The policy emerges amidst efforts by the US AI company to tighten access for users in China to its models.

Several reports indicate Alibaba has classified Claude Code as high-risk software. As an alternative, the company is urging its employees to use Qoder, an AI programming tool developed internally.

Anthropic had previously prohibited Chinese companies, including foreign entities owned by Chinese firms, from using its AI models. The company has also reportedly been working to close loopholes that allowed users in China to continue accessing the Claude service.

According to a recent Reddit post, one such effort involved a version of Claude Code that could covertly identify users from China. Responding to this, Anthropic’s Thariq Shihipar explained that the mechanism was part of an experiment launched in March aimed at preventing account misuse by unauthorised resellers and protecting against distillation, a practice where an AI model is trained using the output of another model. Shihipar added that stronger mitigation measures have since been implemented and the company had long intended to remove the original mechanism.

In a firmer response, Alibaba has now prohibited the use of Claude Code within its internal environment, pushing employees to adopt Qoder as its primary AI coding tool.