And it may have found a route through Shanghai.

According to the New York Times, which quoted people with “knowledge” of the situation, Facebook plans to open an office in Shanghai to build company hardware. But the employees will also be there to assist in expanding Facebook’s “broader ambitions in China.”

What can that mean? Who knows other than Mark Zuckerberg and his inner circle? But the social media behemoth is no stranger to secrecy. Facebook even tried to get a foothold back in China by launching a photo-sharing app called “Colorful Balloons.” It was actually based off the company’s Moments app minus all its branding.

The app. was a flop.

But it was reportedly put there for the company to get a better understanding of the Chinese market.

Still, even Zuckerberg himself has been active in the country. He’s been spending time there rubbing elbows with government officials, chatting with President Xi Jinping about potential baby names, and gingerly jogging across Tiananmen Square — a site that several Chinese citizens, unsurprisingly, did not have great affection for.

But that system is about to encroach even deeper into the lives of Chinese citizens. Without these VPNs, it would be virtually impossible for users to access unfiltered content from websites like Facebook and Twitter. It would essentially close China’s iron fist on the media. The government under President Xi Jinping already has directed traditional media to follow party lines and promote “positive propaganda.” It has also initiated an official government licensing policy for media.

China Mobile, China Telecom and China Unicom are the state-run telecom companies to receive the government directive, according to a report by Bloomberg.

China Mobile, China Unicom and the Ministry did not immediately respond to CNBC’s requests for comment. Meanwhile, a spokesperson from China Telecom denied receiving such a government directive.

Even those who agree with China’s basis to censor politically sensitive information are now arguing that China’s digital nets are spreading too far and beginning to have a detrimental impact on commerce, academia, and even medical advancements for the country.

Not surprisingly, their voices are not necessarily being circulated around.

During the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), an officially sanctioned non-communist political party the China Association for Promoting Democracy told reporters it would be issuing an anti-censorship proposal. This document would aim to only ease access for non-politically-sensitive academic websites.

“It is not normal when quite a number of researchers have to purchase software that helps them bypass the country’s firewalls in order to complete their scientific research,” said Luo Fuhe, the party’s executive vice-chairman.

Online reports of his proposal were later removed from major news sites and social media.

Biologist Luo Yongzhang, a cancer expert at Tsinghua University, says censorship of Google is making his work particularly difficult.

Caroline Cheng Yi, a political adviser and renowned sculptor, argues that censorship of sites like Google, Facebook and even Pinterest impedes small businesses’ capacity to market goods and services.

“I use Facebook to promote Chinese ceramics to the world,” she said. “But after it was banned, I could only use it when I returned to Hong Kong, or use a VPN (virtual private network), which is not that stable. China is losing many opportunities without social media like Facebook.”

She warns that although sites like these are off limits to common folk, governmental bodies can maintain such accounts to promote their own views and developments, which may lead to mass resentment down the road.

“Xi Jinping has reiterated many times that China must insist on ‘opening up’ and welcome the Internet age, but when he’s talking about all this, the country’s [censorship] is becoming more and more like that of North Korea,” Cheng said. 

China recently completed its longest space mission with the safe return of the Shengzou-11 astronauts. The country also launched a new space lab module, put a new spaceport into operation, and erected the world’s largest radio telescope – which theoretically may open channels of communication with intelligent beings beyond the planet Earth.

It was undoubtedly a very successful year for the country’s space program, but where does China have its sights set next? The answer is, the moon. China plans to launch Chang’e 5 during the second half of 2017 atop a Long March-5 rocket aimed at the moon. Its mission is to collect several pounds of lunar samples before hurling the specimens back to Earth–  a feat that hasn’t been accomplished since the former Soviet Union did so in 1975. And in 2018, China plans to launch a lander to the far side of the moon – a mysterious region yet untouched by any country.

“China is clearly moving closer and closer to being able to achieve the long-planned culmination of ‘Project 921,’ a large, permanently crewed space station,” says Joan Johnson-Freese, a professor in the Department of National Security Affairs at the Naval War College in Newport, Rhode Island. “Once that is achieved, I would not be at all surprised by an official announcement of a human mission to the moon.”

In fact, the Shenzou and Chang’e programs have set the path to the moon. During the Shenzhou-11 mission, crew members Jing Haipeng and Chen Dong lived within the Tiangong-2 space lab where they spent most of their time honing the skills necessary to build China’s first large space station, which is set to go operational in 2020. It would go live just as the International Space Station goes into retirement – a scenario space exploration experts have been keeping a diligent eye on.

In fact, some experts say these developments may spark another space race like the one fought between the U.S. and U.S.S.R. in the 1960s.

“Our celestial satellite is a strategic asset, says Clive Neal, a lunar scientist at the University of Notre Dame in Indiana. “If China’s interest in the moon rejuvenates our own, the U.S. has the opportunity to stimulate private sector jobs while expanding humanity beyond the Earth, he adds. “Next year China will attempt something only the former Soviet Union has done and the United States has not yet managed to do, and that is robotically returning samples from a planetary surface.” Such samples, from an unexplored part of the lunar surface, says Neal, “will have a huge impact on lunar science … but will U.S. scientists be allowed to study these?”

But, the astronauts didn’t immediately come out of the capsule upon landing as they were undergoing medical examinations, according to CCTV. During a televised speech, however, Chief commander Zhang Youxia said the crew was in good condition.

Tiangong 2 will remain in orbit before docking with Tianzhou 1, China’s first cargo spacecraft set to be launched next April, according to state media. In a crewed space mission in 2013, three Chinese astronauts spent 15 days in orbit and docked with a space laboratory, the Tiangong 1.

China says it’s focusing its space ambitions on peaceful outcomes. However, it has also been developing its space program for military implications in addition to scientific and commercial purposes. The United States Department of Defense says China’s space-exploration goals are aimed at preventing other nations from using space-based assets in a crisis.