Chinese Programmer Fined Three Years’ Salary for Working for Overseas Company Using VPN
A Chinese programmer who was working for an overseas software company while circumventing the Great Firewall has found himself on the wrong side of the law. The programmer, who was employed from 2019 to 2022, was actively engaged in coding tasks on GitHub, addressing user queries on support platforms, and even conducting remote work via Zoom.
However, his work beyond China’s internet restrictions didn’t go unnoticed. The local authorities in ChengDe stepped in and deemed the programmer’s earnings of 1,058,000 RMB as “illegitimate income.” As a result, he was slapped with a 200 RMB fine and had the substantial sum of 1,058,000 RMB (144,991 USD) confiscated as “proceeds of illegal activities.”
Anyone here thinks China is a normal country and can just live a normal life there needs to wake up a bit. One of these days it will be your turn to get smashed randomly.
This story one hits a bit too close to home for comfort. He is not a foreigner and I guess the money was transferred to China, but apart from that I did the exact same thing as he did.
Luckily I don’t live in China anymore.
I was sentenced to three and a half years in prison for providing VPN services to people. The charge was “providing tools for invading and illegally controlling computer information systems.” When I tell this story, many people don’t believe it and accuse me of spreading rumors. Those who still believe that China is a normal country up to now, you should get your heads checked at the hospital.
Chinese people call that kind of ccp action as “Harvesting leeks”.
For the leek, if you don’t cut it all the way to the root, the will regrowth. The corrupted regime sucking the money fout of the people pockets without killing them just kind of like that.
Thank you for working free for China CCP.
dude should had just moved out and work overseas instead…
Question as don’t know the prison system there.
For the person who was fined, are they able to leave the country easily at all to get out of something so bs?
Will this help him get political asylum from the US?
Your money is their money. Their money is their money.
It’s a jungle land. That’s why I loved it.
I mean he knew of the risks for doing it… can’t really feel sorry for someone who knowingly breaks the law, even if the law is questionable.
Like even in US, i had a coworker who “double dipped” by working on 2 full time jobs and make phone calls during his first full time job and he got serious trouble when people reported him. His response was “well i got my work here done” - which wasn’t good enough since there’s always more work if he asked…
If the guy didn’t pay taxes I say he deserves it. He should’ve registered as a contractor, done everything officially. It looks like the story is trying to big up the fact that he was working for a foreign entity and used oh my gaawd, a VPN! But it is common knowledge that Chinese businesses are okay to use VPNs, for example to post on social media like Facebook or Google’s App Store. Most likely the guy is a typical Chinese smartass type who try to blatantly do some crazy shit hoping it would fly, then get agitated when they get checked, like those guys doing racist tiktoks with African children.
Hmmm. I know of tons of people who use VPN’s in China due to their company requirements. This is not uncommon in any way shape or form. China is filled with foreign businesses which have these requirements. However, in this case, very little info was given. Could it be the programmer was actually either sharing information with a restricted website (github) or not paying taxes on his earnings from an external to China company? I personally suspect he was being paid to share priveledged info on github and making money from it, and that’s what was confiscated. I mean really, how many programmers in China making 300,000+ rmb a year?
the cumulative dissatisfaction from these kinds of cases will eventually explode into backlashes and riots i think
Steal all of his hard earned money and fine him 200rmb… wow.
To be fair, his earnings weren’t taxed either in China or abroad so it technically constitutes tax evasion. But you are right, sizing ALL his money and fining a mere 200RMB isn’t right.
That sounds like classic communism: whatever you produce is considered property of the state,
Egads, underpaid by foreigners and fucked by domestics.