*Matías Otero Johansson was in the middle of coding an app when Claude became unavailable to him. On his computer, the desktop app was showing a padlock with a notification that his account had been closed. He filed an appeal, stating that he was travelling in China and using the account normally.
Around one week later, Anthropic replied that it had reviewed his appeal and would not restore access. This was a final decision, with no possibility of challenging it.
It seemed like everything was lost. "I lost all my work, I'm pissed," Johansson said in an interview with Techloy, explaining how he felt at that moment. "What I disliked the most was the fact that there was no good reason given. Like if I had been doing hacking or something, that's understandable."
Nevertheless, something unusual happened after that. His wife, who used the same account from her smartphone, could still log in. He opened claude.ai from his computer's browser, and everything worked without problems. Chat history, projects, and even the Claude Design tool he had paid for.
About a week after that final decision, he kept working in that browser tab as a Pro user, with no explanation of why one door is closed while the other one is open. The ban did push him to build a backup plan, and he now has four AI models on his list. Where he draws those lines turns out to be the more interesting story.
Damilare Odedina
Why Claude does not work in China
Johansson is a Chilean-Swedish entrepreneur who has been residing in China for the last seven years. He heads a company called SinoCircuit, which arranges week-long tours of China for foreign executives. He created the company largely with the help of AI and built its website with Claude Design. He is also, by Anthropic's own standards, not even supposed to use Claude at all.
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