Why is my VPN not working in China?

A connected handshake is not a working session. China Mobile and hotel Wi-Fi often reset the tunnel after a few seconds. Switch location. Between 8:00pm and 11:00pm China time, use Hong Kong or Singapore.

Should I reinstall if the VPN will not connect?

Reinstall after you have tried another location and a full quit of the app. Most failures are the network or the node, not a broken install.

Why is a VPN not working in China?

A VPN is not working in China when the app says connected and the page still does not load. The handshake finished. The network then reset the flow. That is the common case on China Mobile, campus Wi-Fi, and hotel Wi-Fi. It is not a mystery brand ranking.

What to do, in order:

Note the location you are on and the time
Quit the app completely and open it again
From 8:00pm to 11:00pm China time, switch to Hong Kong or Singapore. Those lines hold up better while the evening network is overloaded
During the day, switch to a different location. A slow afternoon is usually that node, not every node
Leave WeChat and Alipay on the local path so a payment is not waiting on the tunnel

Reinstalling five apps does not fix a reset flow. A VPN in China has to hold a session, not win a handshake. Windows and Android builds are on the download page.