There absolutely are, or at least were. I attended a computer security competition in Shanghai in 2016, and the organizers told us explicitly that they’d obtained an exemption to get unfiltered internet access at the site. It was indeed unfiltered - Google and such worked fine - and an IP test showed us connecting from a Chinese ISP (so, not a VPN).

As this was about five years ago, the situation may well have changed, but at the time exemptions definitely were possible.