Yes, I was in no way suggesting that this was a practical alternative for Chinese researchers needing to bypass the Great Firewall. Besides the expense, I presume there are laws against Chinese citizens using international SIM cards for the purpose of bypassing the firewall.

I was simply making the point that the government has made accommodations to ease the use by international business travelers.

I'll also add that my ExpressVPN account (which I used from different Wi-Fi networks) often failed to connect, presumably because the Great Firewall is looking for VPN network patterns to block.