You are being absolutely ridiculous. VPNs may be de jure forbidden in China (idk about this even), but de-facto they’re absolutely allowed, nobody is prosecuted for using them, and every young Chinese person can tell you this. You haven’t talked with a Chinese living in China in your entire life.
Ma [the one ordered to pay] 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. He was later asked to provide details about his work, his bank details, his employment contract and other information, before being issued with the penalty in August
This person was not “using a VPN”, he was lying to the government about his working status and working for an overseas firm illegally.
You are being absolutely ridiculous. VPNs may be de jure forbidden in China (idk about this even), but de-facto they’re absolutely allowed, nobody is prosecuted for using them, and every young Chinese person can tell you this. You haven’t talked with a Chinese living in China in your entire life.
That’s not true either
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/oct/09/chinese-programmer-ordered-to-pay-1m-yuan-for-using-virtual-private-network
From the article:
This person was not “using a VPN”, he was lying to the government about his working status and working for an overseas firm illegally.
There’s nothing illegal about working overseas