iPad constantly trying to contact China IP address.

Your iPad will be resolving IP addresses using DNS - and within China, the DNS servers that determine the resources to which you connect will themselves be located in China.

While not guaranteed to resolve your immediate issue (as transparent proxies can still intercept and redirect traffic), you might consider manually setting your preferred DNS servers in preference to Automatic server selection. As a starting point, I suggest manually configuring one of the following DNS services:

Quad9 (recommended)

9.9.9.9

149.112.112.112

2620:fe::fe

2620:fe::9

OpenDNS

208.67.222.222

208.67.220.220

2620:119:35::35

2620:119:53::53

Cloudflare

1.1.1.1

1.0.0.1

2606:4700:4700::1111

2606:4700:4700::1001

To configure DNS for your network connection:

Settings > WiFi > [Your WiFi SSID] - tap the “i” icon - then Configure DNS > Manual - replace the listed DNS servers*

(*) Enter all four addresses for the chosen service, one server address on each line (the sequence isn’t critical); delete any other server addresses from the list.

You should note that DNS settings are configured individually for each network connection - each WiFi network to which you may connect having its own network/DNS connection settings.

There are advanced techniques that may help, such as using to DoH or DoT with DNS; while fully and effectively supported by iOS/iPadOS, Apple doesn’t expose this capability via device settings - but there are easy ways to access this functionality. An easy way to set and manage DoH/DoT settings is to use a third-party utility App - DNSecure:

https://apps.apple.com/app/dnsecure/id1533413232

This App does exactly what is needed to effectively configure DoH/DoT - and is free to download and install. Many DNS providers are already preconfigured - including Quad9 and Cloudflare. Additional secure DNS providers can be added if required.

OC1Bob wrote:

Thank y’all. iPad still won’t connect with the new manual settings; probably user error as I’m not a power user, probably missing something. But perhaps I need an apple support visit to hold my hand back in the US.

Your difficulties are most likely due to your location (China) - and will resolve when you leave the country.

Consider that China greatly regulates access to the wider internet beyond its national borders. These controls will affect everyone accessing networks from within China.

My phone thinks I’m always in Australia, the UK, or Singapore. So I feel the pain. No VPN and settings for location are set , so who knows

Thank y’all. iPad still won’t connect with the new manual settings; probably user error as I’m not a power user, probably missing something. But perhaps I need an apple support visit to hold my hand back in the US.

B-Spoke wrote:

I am not in China. Since I block all connections to China/Russia, I would have no internet connection if I was using a China based DNS.

I am using Quad9 with DNS over TLS. Checking with browserleaks.com and internet.nl, I can see that my requests are all going through Quad9 servers. It is the Apple hardware trying to connect with servers in China. My Windows PCs are perfectly fine as well as my Android devices.

It seems that I’ve managed to fix it by disabling “checking of fraudulent sites”.

Either way, the connections are blocked on my system no matter what the Apple devices want to do. This was an FYI for others that this issue remains unaddressed by Apple.

My earlier reply was directed to OC1Bob - who is travelling in China.

That aside, I an intrigued to better understand your issue. Be aware that routing of your internet traffic is largely beyond your control. DNS server settings can only influence IP Address resolution - not traffic routing.

In using Quad9 you are using one of the better security-focused DNS providers - that provides useful filtering of bad or malicious web resources; known bad sites are sink-holed, reducing your potential exposure to threat actors. Adding DoT ensures that your DNS queries are encrypted instead of being transmitted in cleartext; this measure reduces opportunity for monitoring or manipulating your DNS queries - but does not have any impact upon traffic routing though the internet.

Are you perhaps an iCloud+ subscriber, using Apple's Private Relay service? This service will have impact upon both DNS resolution (as it largely overrides any manual device settings) and intentionally routes your internet traffic through at least two additional proxy services over which you have no control.

Thanks so much for all your assistance. I'm back in the US again. I'm imagining I need to set up the best setup prior to going to China again, as of course, unlike my iPhone, once there the lock is on. I'm a neophyte so I don't understand how to manually set these protocols but again, I suppose I need to preset them prior to entering China? And, while I'm asking, any reason not to just set my iPad up (2020 Pro version) and leave it for China access even outside China?

I’m in China visiting. Even with a vpn, no access to anything