Would it be ok for a Chinese National turned US citizen to VPN into my US-based VPN server while touring China?
Legal? Absolutely not. Can you get jailed? Absolutely. Would you get in trouble for using it? Probably not? 
First off did you renounce your Chinese citizenship AND Hukou? If you did not, China still considers you a Chinese citizen despite your US passport and will deny you consular access should you be arrested.
Secondly, using unauthorized VPN in China is absolutely illegal. Foreigners are NOT exempt should the cops want to come after you. People keep saying they have friends using it all the time. What they fail to understand is that Chinese cops not enforcing their law doesn’t render it legal. With people keeping on perpetuating this myth that foreigner using VPN in China is ok, you are actually handing legal leverage to their law enforcement to detain you at any moment. They don’t even need to put you in prison, they can just simply slap your ass with an exit ban and turn the entire country into one big jail for you.
Thirdly, they just passed a tightened anti-espionage law. Someone like you, a naturalized US citizen of Chinese origin, would be a prime candidate and you using a VPN connecting to US server is just asking to get your ass clapped. Local officials who wants to gain promotion will be on the lookout for types like you, arrest and prosecute you so they can gripe to their superiors that they caught a “spy”.
You decide on what to do, cause if you do get arrest there is nothing US gov can do to get you out.
USA just announced its ramping up its CIA network in China. One day later some people got arrested for spying in china.
As the other poster said, good luck
US tech workers in China use their companies’ VPNs.
But that’s with the CCP’s blessing. They’re helping the Chinese economy.
And you can bet the CCP/PLA constantly try to hack them while they’re visiting.
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Only way it would matter is if cops busted you for something and decided to check your phone (which in my experience is just them flipping through your main menus).
They don’t go around randomly checking phones, just don’t download the “anti corruption app” if a cop asks you too on a street corner or something because that app does spy on your apps and web history.
I am a Chinese who use the company’s vpn to browse external websites every morning. And when I am in University, I use University’s vpn as well. I have to say that many people overestimate their own value and think that they deserve to be taken seriously by the Chinese police, if they are just normal foreign citizens.
A US SIM card will work and evade the firewall if you want. It basically proxies all traffic through the US.
A lot of alarmist nonsense on offer here. Whole businesses use VPN. Whole schools openly use VPN. I’ve lost count of the amount of locals that use VPN. It’s not exaggerating by saying that every foreign person here, bar a few students, uses a VPN.
If you promoted the sale and use of VPNs you’d get in trouble. Maybe.
Stay at a U.S. hotel, such as Hilton, and you don’t need VPN.
The show addresses this a lot. Basically, unless the PRC is looking for an excuse to arrest you (and they’ll just make one up if they want to), you can use one as long as you don’t say anything controversial (just remember simply mentioning Taiwan might construed as controversial there), they don’t care.
First of all, they can buy their own VPN, why using yours?
Second, if they have home in the US, they can build their own private VPN themselves.
Why letting a spy to use your network?
Google Fi. Technically you are not using VPN but the ISP is giving you access to the outside world. However, it’s never predictable in China.
I’m Chinese and a lot friends of mine is using VPN everyday not feeling anything wrong, but who knows… idk if there’ll be special care for foreigner who uses VPN, but only from my perspective it is just ok to use.
ps: I don’t think many foreign VPN companies’ products work well in china. i suggest you to find one which is recommended by someone who currently lived in China.
Everyone uses vpn, the cops usually dont waste their time hunting for people using vpns.
Legally no but you’re probably fine.
If I were you I would reroute your traffic through somewhere other than the US though.
Correct me if I’m wrong…
China does not recognize a us citizen because they won’t see past ethnicity.
Remember, most people living in China while surfing Reddit are VPN users, and most of them haven’t been caught (depend the security of the VPN and user’s habits and behavior).