A programmer in northern China has been ordered to pay more than 1 million yuan to the authorities for using a virtual private network (VPN), in what is thought to be the most severe individual financial penalty ever issued for circumventing China’s “great firewall.” The programmer, surnamed Ma, was issued with a penalty notice by the public security bureau of Chengde, a city in Hebei province, on August 18. The notice said Ma had used “unauthorised channels” to connect to international networks to work for a Turkish company. The police confiscated the 1.058m yuan ($145,092) Ma had earned as a software developer between September 2019 and November 2022, describing it as “illegal income,” as well as fining him 200 yuan ($27).
Charlie Smith (a pseudonym), the co-founder of GreatFire.org, a website that tracks internet censorship in China, said: “Even if this decision is overturned in court, a message has been sent and damage has been done. Is doing business outside of China now subject to penalties?”
Abstract credit: https://slashdot.org/story/420019
The police confiscated the 1.058m yuan ($145,092) Ma had earned as a software developer between September 2019 and November 2022, describing it as “illegal income,” as well as fining him 200 yuan ($27).
So you can’t work for a Turkish company from China? Using a VPN is normal for work.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
The programmer, surnamed Ma, was issued with a penalty notice by the public security bureau of Chengde, a city in Hebei province, on 18 August.
Ma said the police seized his phone, laptop and several computer hard drives upon learning that he worked for an overseas company, holding them for a month.
Charlie Smith (a pseudonym), the co-founder of GreatFire.org, a website that tracks internet censorship in China, said: “Even if this decision is overturned in court, a message has been sent and damage has been done.
VPNs, which help users circumvent the “great firewall” of internet censorship by making it look as if their device is in a different country, operate in a legal grey area in China.
The government generally turns a blind eye to the relatively small number of individuals who use the technology to access websites such as Google, Facebook, Twitter and, often, view pornography.
In June, Radio Free Asia reported that a Uyghur student, Mehmut Memtimin, was serving a 13-year sentence in Xinjiang for using a VPN to access “illegal information”.
The original article contains 682 words, the summary contains 176 words. Saved 74%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
The 1m was confiscated because it was ‘illegal income’, not because he used VPN. Yes, it’s still shitty that using VPN to access GitHub makes his income illegal, and yes Chinese government just sucks. But it’s amused that those news agencies intentionally use misleading titles. They are no better than the Chinese government.
Not spelling out the whole story to your satisfaction in the headline is no better than capricious law enforcement giving out penalties for something that shouldn’t be a crime ranging from nothing, to a $27 fine, to confiscating 3 years of income, to 13 years in prison?
Intentionally misleading by summarizing partial facts is simply evil. Not sure if anyone may be satisfied with this approach, but even if some do, I’m willing to bet they will become unsatisfied if missing part of the facts is actually what they care about.
How is it misleading? Based on the info we have it seems accurate.
The headline isn’t simply a brief summary of what happened, it’s a gross, intentional misinterpretation of the facts to spread an agenda
Isn’t it illegal because he used a VPN? Seems like semantics.
Removed by mod
That’s just circling around the issue.
The income is illegal according to the Chinese government because he used a VPN to do work, he wasn’t charged for using the VPN directly he was charged for using the VPN to do work, but functionally it’s the same thing.
They don’t like people doing stuff they don’t know about because they’re a draconian oversight obsessed dictatorship.
The 1m was confiscated because it was ‘illegal income’, not because he used VPN.
Yes, it’s still shitty that using VPN to access GitHub makes his income illegal
using VPN … makes his income illegal
Yes, they fine wasn’t a flat 1m or whatever, but because he earned it while using a VPN on and off(cuz the great firewall periodically blocks github). None of that would of happened if he didn’t use a VPN, so saying that the direct reason he’s in trouble isn’t why he got punished is less honest.
If your complaint is about how the number was determined, perhaps it would be better as “Chinese programmer ordered to pay entire income(1m yuan) for using Virtual Private Network.” Honestly, either headline is fine as long as the details of how that number was chosen is in the article.
This kind of reporting is the reason people in the west hate Chinese government.
Wtf is wrong with China?
I’m often confused about China’s laws.
If doing business outside of China is now illegal doesn’t that rather undermine the basis of theur whole cheap manufacturing economy?
All countries will confiscate illegally obtained income. Want to work cross-border? Do it with the proper visas, permissions, tax reporting, residencies, etc. There’s no story here, just more China hate to help beat the drums of war.
I don’t get it; if I pay my taxes in my country of residence, how is it illegal to work for a foreign entity ?
Why would I need a visa if I stay in my own country ?
US regime doesn’t even allow its citizens to visit Cuba let alone work there.
True but I can critize the people in power and vote in elections in the US. You can’t do that in China.
This is what your choice looks like in practice:
“The oppressed are allowed once every few years to decide which particular representatives of the oppressing class are to represent and repress them.”
And this is precisely what research analyzing decades of policy shows:
Meanwhile, imagine being so utterly ignorant to think that people in China don’t vote for their leaders. You should be embarrassed of yourself.
Its not illegal to use VPNs in free counties. In China the government is in absolute control over the people and they use brainwashing techniques to keep everyone in line.
VPNs allow people to see options outside the state sanctioned media which is a threat to the people in power.
