China and the US Clash: Alibaba Bans Anthropic’s Claude Code
A few days ago, Anthropic accused Alibaba of copying data related to Claude Code. Now, the Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba has banned its employees from using Anthropic’s Claude Code in the workplace. According to a report by the Chinese publication Yicai, Alibaba made this decision following an internal assessment which identified the tool as high-risk software, citing reports of potential backdoors. The report further states that Alibaba has added Claude Code to its list of prohibited software and has advised employees to use ‘Qoder’ as an alternative.
According to the report, Alibaba has accused Anthropic of embedding a backdoor in Claude Code, raising concerns about unauthorized access to sensitive corporate data. Information regarding this alleged mechanism first surfaced via a Reddit user who claimed to have reverse-engineered Claude Code. Allegedly, starting from version 2.1.91, the tool was checking proxy configurations and time zones against a hidden list of networks and AI labs belonging to Chinese corporations such as Alibaba, Baidu, ByteDance, and Moonshot AI. However, Anthropic has not yet issued a statement regarding the matter.
A Reddit post alleged the presence of hidden spyware in Claude Code, sparking fears regarding surveillance and data security. Alibaba’s decision to blacklist the tool has further fueled these concerns. According to the post, since the release of version 2.1.91 on April 2, 2026, Claude Code checks whether a proxy is enabled; if so, it modifies the system prompt to covertly transmit information regarding whether the user is located in China, is proxying through a Chinese URL, or is connected to a Chinese AI lab. Anthropic also attempted to conceal this code within the Claude Code binary.
Controversy over data scraping
It is worth noting that in June, Anthropic accused Alibaba’s Qwen lab of operating approximately 25,000 fake accounts to scrape Claude’s output, resulting in a total of 28.8 million interactions. Now, Alibaba has internally blocked Claude Code, further escalating tensions between US and Chinese AI companies.
