On July 8, 2026, China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology issued a warning regarding Anthropic's Claude Code, claiming it contains a security back-door vulnerability that could compromise sensitive user information, including location and identity.
This announcement follows accusations from Anthropic that Alibaba attempted to access its AI capabilities, which are not officially available in China. In response to the security concerns, the ministry advised users to uninstall or upgrade from specific versions of Claude Code, particularly those released between April 2 and June 29, which are identified as vulnerable.
The latest version, 2.1.204, is unaffected. The situation underscores the growing scrutiny of U.S. technology in China and may hinder the use of American AI tools in the region, potentially impacting Anthropic's business and the broader tech landscape as companies navigate these geopolitical tensions