VPN vs eSIM

Hello everyone, I hope you are all doing well. I am planning to travel to China for 8 weeks. I came across with lots of people promoting Astrill VPN to use so I will be able to browse with apps like Instagram, telegram, WhatsApp, discord.. Then I thought, If I buy Asialink eSIM from Airalo (for Asia region and not for just China), when my internet provider will be outside the China, will I be able to access these apps or will I need VPN at this time too?