I'm planning to travel to China, and I wonder which is the safest way to use my GOS device there.
Is using a SIM travel router (4G or 5G) and keeping my GOS device in Airplane mode protecting me against potential spywares from the local authorities ?
Do you have any tips to keep safe (I mean secure, not necessarly private, as there is not such thing as privacy in the country, considering the CCTV and other surveillance measure).
Many thanks for your tips / idea.
Travelling to China with your phone is just like travelling to Europe, no one is going to confiscate your device or stop you from using it.
I used to believe otherwise, but I realized that this was baseless propaganda. After spending a few months in China last summer, I saw firsthand that the reality for visitors is far different from the misconceptions.
A recommendation I would like to share is to use https://www.airalo.com/ for your eSIM needs rather than using a local SIM from within the country. Works great and decent pricing.
Wipe the device and keep no personal data on it when going across borders. This would apply everywhere, not just China.
I would recommend using a foreign SIM as well, in this way international roaming will allow you to bypass the Great Firewall.
Wipe the device and reinstall GOS when you get back and it should be fine.
Obviously if it has ever been on the hands of a stranger anywhere, dispose of the device as it could not possibly be trusted any longer.
Never been to China, but I hope my 2 cents can help either way.
If you are really worried about the content of your phone, I would wipe the phone and only go with the basics installed on it.
Otherwise, I would say, don't bother making your phone overly complicated, just uninstall things you think could be sensible, here's why I think that is a valid option:
I was always of the belief that if you go to China, they are gonna ask you for your phone and password, and keep an eye on you.
Very recently, multiple people I know personally went to China to visit, including one person married to a Chinese citizen and as such, goes regularly there.
Naturally I have asked all of them by curiosity, if it was really as bad as what people say, they all answered the same thing; None of them felt like their privacy was being invaded at any point during the trip.
Obviously, it's extremely likely that you are still monitored in some ways, but from what I heard from anyone that went there, the CCP doesn't really care much about you because you are a random foreigner, and also, they actually would like a lot of people to visit the country, so they're trying not to be too hostile to foreigners.
So really most likely what you should be expecting is the level of monitoring that's done in every country nowadays.
