Chinese Regime Bans XChat Along With Reports of Its Launch, Residents Say

XChat, a privacy-focused messaging app launched by Elon Musk’s X platform, was made officially available on the Apple App Store on April 17, but has been censored in mainland China along with Chinese media reports about its release.

Searching for “XChat,” “xchat,” or the app’s name in Chinese on platforms such as Douyin or Little Red Book consistently yields empty results, accompanied by technical error codes such as “–30002,” according to social media posts.

Li Zhihao, an engineer based in Guangdong Province in China who specializes in platform technical testing, told The Epoch Times: “This notification is not merely a standard ‘no results found’ message; rather, the interface directly returned an error code, indicating that the search request was intercepted at the server level.

“Generally speaking, this signifies that the keyword in question has been flagged and incorporated into the platform’s high-level risk control system.”

XChat is built on the Nostr protocol, designed for secure communication within closed private groups. No phone numbers, emails, or permanent identifiers are required, and it has end-to-end encryption for all messages/media, according to its description in online app stores.

In order to use XChat, users need to have an X.com account.

X is banned in mainland China. It has been inaccessible via normal internet connections since 2009, blocked by the Chinese communist regime’s Great Firewall censorship system. Some Chinese residents bypass the Great Firewall using virtual private networks.

In contrast, mainstream Chinese social platforms—such as WeChat and Weibo—generally mandate the binding of mobile phone numbers and enforce real-name registration requirements. Furthermore, the Chinese platforms automatically censor content that is deemed sensitive by the Chinese regime. They also collect users’ information, whether they are in China or anywhere else in the world, and share it with Chinese authorities when it is requested, as mandated by China’s national security and cybersecurity laws.

Articles Introducing XChat Launch Deleted

Several Chinese media outlets—including Xinhuanet, The Paper, and Yicai—briefly reported the news regarding the pre-launch of XChat between April 11 and April 13. However, in recent days, these reports have been deleted from the Chinese internet, according to social media posts and screenshots.

Wang, an industry insider who gave only her last name out of fear of reprisal, told The Epoch Times that the removal of these articles demonstrates the ruling Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP’s) extreme sensitivity regarding digital control.

“The CCP absolutely will not tolerate the existence of something that remains invisible to it,” she said. “Domestic software is permitted to survive only because it has been transformed into a surveillance tool of the Chinese regime, capable of accessing users’ chat content and identities at any moment. Now, the CCP authorities are attempting to cut off the dissemination of XChat at the source—to the point where even its name has been forbidden.”

Wang said she would continue to “scale the Great Firewall” to use foreign communication apps.

“This towering wall cannot confine everyone,” she said. “The more people who bypass it to download these apps, the more it demonstrates that people have had enough of a communication environment devoid of privacy—one where only surveillance exists. Many people in China are eager to try out software like XChat that allows them to speak freely and securely.”

Over the past decade, Chinese authorities have tightened their control over communication apps, especially those featuring end-to-end encryption such as Telegram, Signal, and WhatsApp, which have been banned in mainland China for years.

Xin Ling contributed to this report.