As Think Tank the Mercator Institute for China Studies last year observed, IPv6+ “has obvious appeal for authoritarian regimes looking to control their citizens,” because a carrier could read metadata and act on it. //

Reading metadata could also enable censorship: Beijing already blocks a lot of content, and if dissidents had to identify themselves in packets, they’d be easier to find and block.

The Institute also notes that China’s telco equipment companies have implemented IPv6+ and exported kit that runs it to several nations.

That’s worrying because China already tried to create a protocol called “New IP” that also included surveillance-friendly features.