Recently, a programmer posted an article on Weibo claiming that he was working for an overseas company while accessing the international internet. He was subsequently accused by the Shuangqiao Public Security Sub-bureau in Chengde, Hebei of "illegally establishing and using non-official channels for international networking" and received an administrative penalty of a fine of RMB 200 and the confiscation of "illegal gains" totaling RMB 1.05 million.
This is the most severe punishment reported so far for the offense of "illegally establishing and using non-official channels for international networking." Previous punishments were limited to "on-the-spot admonitions" or "orders to cease international networking."
The blogger stated that initially, the police suspected him of having an unauthorized Twitter account. However, after confirming that the account did not belong to him, the police began investigating his "circumvention of the Great Firewall" and subsequently informed him that all income obtained through circumvention was considered "illegal gains" and subject to confiscation.
According to the blogger's defense statement, his work involved logging into GitHub to receive company tasks, writing code, answering user questions on the company's customer support website, conducting meetings via Zoom video conferencing software, and providing remote assistance.
The blogger also mentioned that he repeatedly stated that accessing GitHub and the company's customer support website did not require circumvention and that code writing could be done on his local computer without circumvention. However, these explanations were not accepted.
Article 6 of the "Interim Provisions on the Administration of the International Networking of Computer Information Networks of the People's Republic of China," enacted in 1997, stipulates that "computer information networks must use the international entry and exit channels provided by the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications' national public telecommunications network for direct international networking. No unit or individual may establish or use other channels for international networking." Article 14 states that "any violation of the provisions of Article 6, Article 8, and Article 10 of these regulations shall be ordered by the public security organ to cease networking, given a warning, and may be fined up to RMB 15,000; if there are illegal gains, the illegal gains shall be confiscated."
Although the concept of "circumvention of the Great Firewall" did not exist when these regulations were enacted, and virtual private networks (VPNs) or proxy servers were not widely used, the term "channels" mentioned in the regulations was interpreted as "physical channels" in the "Implementation Measures for the Interim Provisions on the Administration of the International Networking of Computer Information Networks of the People's Republic of China," enacted in 1998, rather than "virtual channels" such as VPNs or proxy servers. However, this "Interim Provisions" has been widely used to punish "circumvention of the Great Firewall" activities.
On the "Zhejiang Government Service Network," there are over 30 cases of administrative penalties related to "circumvention of the Great Firewall" that are publicly disclosed each year, all citing the provisions of this "Interim Provisions."
According to online discussions, the blogger's GitHub account username is maliming and he works for volosoft. The programmer stated that he would file an administrative lawsuit in October, but his Weibo account and this article has been deleted now.
Hence this claim is not confirmed whether to be true or not. Wil see whether there would be some official statement from the government in the future. Stay tuned.
