Claude Code Banned in China Post Severe Data Leak Alert: Uninstall Steps & Alternatives for Developers
China's NVDB issues a critical data leakage alert for Claude Code, prompting Alibaba to ban Anthropic products. Here's how developers can uninstall...
On July 8, 2026, the Network Security Threat and Vulnerability Information Sharing Platform (NVDB) under China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology released an urgent security notice targeting the AI coding tool Claude Code. The notice identified a severe vulnerability (CNVD-2026-38421) affecting versions v2.1.91 to v2.1.196, classifying it as the highest risk level.
The vulnerability involves hidden monitoring mechanisms that collect sensitive user data without consent—including geographic location, device unique identifiers, system time zones, proxy configurations, and partial project paths and code snippets. Notably, the tool actively detects keywords related to Chinese cloud and AI companies; upon identifying Chinese users, it encrypts and transmits the collected data to overseas servers.
Alibaba swiftly responded by announcing a full ban on all Anthropic AI products starting July 10, recommending employees switch to its in-house tool Qoder. For hundreds of thousands of Chinese developers using Claude Code, this shifts the decision from "whether to switch" to "when and how to switch".
To fully uninstall Claude Code, developers should follow platform-specific steps: For macOS, uninstall via Homebrew and delete residual folders (~/.claude/ and ~/Library/Application Support/claude-code/), then remove IDE plugins. For Linux, use apt or dnf to uninstall and delete ~/.claude/ and ~/.config/claude-code/. For Windows, uninstall via Control Panel and manually delete %APPDATA%\claude-code\ and %USERPROFILE%\.claude\. Additional checks include verifying git configs for Claude-related entries and revoking API keys from Anthropic's console.
Compliant alternatives are available, with CrabCode TUI standing out as a top choice for Claude Code users. It offers the same terminal-based interaction paradigm, native Chinese support (no translation layer), compatibility with any terminal environment, domestic data storage, and generous free tiers for individual developers.
Sources
- https://m.toutiao.com/article/7660186346170073654/