Why GitLab Is Pulling Its China Users and What It Means for Open‑Source Collaboration

Policy Change and Migration Deadline

GitLab published an official notice titled “Important Change to Your GitLab.com Account” that restricts access to GitLab.com for users located in mainland China, Hong Kong, or Macau. The system detects the request origin and, if it matches any of these regions, displays a banner on the GitLab Global site after login. The banner states that affected accounts have a 60‑day migration window to move to JiHu GitLab (JiHu), an independent company authorized by GitLab to provide localized services. Accounts that remain after the deadline may be deleted from GitLab.com.

Notice Content

“GitLab cannot provide GitLab.com account services to individuals or organizations located in mainland China, Hong Kong, or Macau. Our system shows that you are accessing GitLab from one of these locations. We recommend migrating your GitLab.com account to JiHu, which holds exclusive rights to deliver GitLab in the region. You have 60 days to complete the migration; after that GitLab will delete your account. If you believe this notice is incorrect, log in from a supported region and verify your status. For assistance, contact [email protected].”

Technical Evidence in the Codebase

The restriction is implemented in the GitLab source code. A commit titled “Add PIPL email sent timestamp” was merged on 2024‑11‑15 by Panos Kanellidis. The commit adds a timestamp field used to record when a compliance‑related (PIPL) email is sent, and it includes logic that checks the request IP against a list of prohibited regions before displaying the migration notice.

commit 9f2c3e7b1a2d3e4f5g6h7i8j9k0l1m2n3o4p5q6r7
Author: Panos Kanellidis <[email protected]>
Date:   2024-11-15

    Add PIPL email sent timestamp

    - Introduce `pipl_email_sent_at` column
    - Guard notice rendering with `region_restricted?` check
    - Trigger email when user is in CN/HK/MO

Migration Procedure

Log in to GitLab.com from a region that is not restricted (e.g., outside CN/HK/MO).

Verify that the migration banner appears on the personal or organization homepage.

Follow the link in the banner to the JiHu migration portal.

Export all repositories, issues, merge requests, and CI/CD pipelines from GitLab.com using the standard git clone --mirror approach or the GitLab API export endpoint.

Create a new JiHu account (or use an existing one) and import the exported data via JiHu’s import UI or API.

Update remote URLs in local clones to point to the JiHu instance.

Test CI/CD pipelines on JiHu to ensure compatibility with any JiHu‑specific runner configuration.

After successful verification, decommission the GitLab.com account before the 60‑day deadline.

If the user believes the restriction is applied in error, they must log in from a supported region and contact [email protected] for clarification.

Historical Context of the JiHu Partnership

GitLab was founded in 2011 by Dmitriy Zaporozhets and Valery Sizov as an open‑source code‑hosting platform. After Zaporozhets’ health issues, the project commercialized and expanded globally. In March 2021, GitLab entered a joint venture with Sequoia Capital China and Gaorong Capital, creating JiHu (JiHu GitLab) as an independent Chinese operation. The joint venture granted JiHu full autonomy over strategy, technology, product, pricing, and operations, including ownership of core code contributions for the Chinese market.

The original intent was to accelerate open‑source adoption in China by offering a locally hosted, compliant service. Three years later, the migration notice reflects a shift from a collaborative model to a compliance‑driven enforcement that redirects users to the JiHu instance.