Alibaba Bans Claude Code Over Security Concerns as Anthropic Admits Hidden User Detection Experiment

Alibaba will ban employees from using Anthropic’s AI coding tool Claude Code from July 10, classifying it as high-risk software and directing staff to use the company’s own Qoder tool instead, according to multiple reports.

The decision follows the surfacing of a Reddit post alleging that a version of Claude Code had been secretly configured to identify Chinese users. Thariq Shihipar of Anthropic confirmed on X that the functionality was real, describing it as an experiment launched in March designed to prevent account abuse by unauthorised resellers and to protect against distillation, the practice of training AI models on the outputs of other models. Shihipar said stronger mitigations had since been implemented and that the experiment had been due for removal.

Anthropic already prohibits Chinese companies, and foreign entities owned by them, from accessing its models, and has reportedly been working to close loopholes that have allowed Chinese users to circumvent those restrictions.

The episode draws attention to growing tensions around AI tool access between US AI developers and Chinese technology companies. For Alibaba, the episode provided sufficient grounds to remove Claude Code from its approved software stack entirely, regardless of Anthropic’s explanation, underscoring how trust and security concerns are beginning to shape enterprise AI adoption decisions at the corporate level in China.