Alibaba has had enough of Claude Code. The Chinese tech giant is classifying Anthropic’s programming tool as high-risk software and telling employees to stop using it starting July 10.
The catalyst? Reports that a version of Claude Code could secretly identify Chinese users. Anthropic already prohibits Chinese companies from using its models. The company has been working to close loopholes allowing Chinese access.
Anthropic’s Thariq Shihipar confirmed the tracking was real — an “experiment” launched in March to prevent account abuse from unauthorized resellers and protect against model distillation. “The team has landed stronger mitigations since then,” he said. “We’ve actually been meaning to take this down for a while.”
Too late. The damage was done, at least as far as Alibaba is concerned. The company is directing employees to use its own Qoder tool instead.
The whole situation highlights the growing friction between US AI companies and Chinese firms. Anthropic blocks Chinese access. Alibaba responds by blocking Anthropic. Everyone tightens up.
