There are new regulations in the works that will require monitoring of public Wi-Fi signals at bars, cafés, hotels and bookstores across China. The rule has already come into effect in Beijing, and Shanghai is supposedly next. But will it actually happen?

Many question not only enforcement of the law but the steep price tag–RMB20,000–to be footed by the Wi-Fi provider.

“All small businesses with Wi-Fi in our area attended [the] meeting,” Ye Jia, a Beijing café owner told China Daily, “but I won’t use the software, because I can’t afford the costly fees.”

Even the police are wary of enforcing the new law, telling one café owner that “it’s a lot of money. We have nothing to do with this; we take orders from other people.”

In Shanghai, few café owners are even aware of the law. One manager at a Shanghai-based chain of restaurants said, “It’s annoying but we don’t really have much of a choice, we may have to charge customers one or two kuai to use Wi-Fi as a solution, but we are not sure what we will have to do.”

Boxing Cat Brewery on Fuxing Lu is a frequent stop for customers wanting a beer with a side order of Wi-Fi. Although their management says that the monitoring looks like it will go ahead, they haven’t received any word on changes they’ll have to make.

“We’ll have to wait and see what happens,” says Boxing Cat manager Mia Nuyda, “but if the government tells us to do it, what can we do?”

But there’s already been some backlash, with even state media getting in on the act. China Daily reported: “Businesses, public pan Wi-Fi monitoring.” Global Times was left questioning: “Is Wi-Fi software illegal?” It also noted that the software provider, Shanghai Rainsoft Company, is run by foreign-based investors, making it a foreign entity that’s unlikely to be involved in something so sensitive or to do with state secrets.

This is not the first time China’s had the pipe-dream of monitoring the daily habits of every personal computer user. Anyone remember Green Dam back in 2009? Here’s hoping this one stays on the shelf.