Interestingly, the two things give me similar feeling.
VPN is needed when people in HK use services like ChatGPT.
另纸签 is needed when Chinese people are entering Vietnam.
The usage of VPN in HK for ChatGPT started when US doesn’t want to recognize Hong Kong as special and treat it more like mainland China.
The usage of 另纸签 started when Vietnam doesn’t want to recognize the map on a Chinese passport.
Sometimes you feel the moves are a bit “childish”, but also “smart” in managing tensions.