Anthropic Adopts an Allowlist System: Mainland China, Hong Kong and Macau Excluded, Effective November 12
Anthropic has published a Supported Regions Policy that moves Claude availability to a whitelist model covering only the 185 countries and regions listed; mainland China, Hong Kong, and Macau are not included. The policy also bars use by anyone located in, registered in, or headquartered in unsupported regions, or majority-owned or controlled by entities there. It took effect on November 12.
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Anthropic Moves to a Whitelist System: Mainland China, Hong Kong, and Macao Excluded, Effective November 12
Anthropic has issued its “Supported Regions Policy,” changing product availability to a whitelist system: Claude.ai, Claude Code, Cowork, the API, and Claude models offered through cloud platforms and authorized resellers are available only in the 185 countries and regions on the list; those not listed are unsupported.
The policy’s three prohibitions are stricter than the list itself: using the products while physically located in an unsupported region is a violation, including for employees of companies in supported regions who are traveling for work; entities registered or headquartered in unsupported regions and their personnel violate the policy by using the products, regardless of whether the individuals are in supported regions; and companies directly or indirectly majority-owned or controlled by entities in unsupported regions are likewise in violation when their personnel use the products.
The list includes Taiwan, while Ukraine excludes five regions: Crimea, Donetsk, Kherson, Luhansk, and Zaporizhzhia; mainland China, Hong Kong, and Macao are all absent. Yet Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Palestine, and other countries are included, showing that it does not copy the U.S. sanctions list but instead reflects Anthropic’s own compliance standards; territories and dependencies are counted with their parent country, so Puerto Rico, for example, is treated as part of the United States.