Yeah I don’t know about that, it rolled out globally a month later.

Except imessage and facetime are end-to-end encrypted in China.

They don’t advertise it, just message support from your .edu email and tell them your username. They’ll apply it and let you use the STUDENT promo code. It’s 50% off the year plan so $5 a month.

Basically 3 good choices

ProtonVPN AirVPN IVPN

Proton has a 50% off student discount bringing the price down to $5 a month for all proton services.

IVPN is probably the best but most expensive.