Fine For VPN Use Sparks Rare Backlash on Chinese Internet

[Elderberry]

Radio Free Asia 5/21/2020

The fining of a Chinese internet user by authorities in the northern province of Shaanxi for using software to circumvent the Great Firewall has sparked a rare public backlash online.

The Hanbin district police department in Shaanxi's Ankang city said on May 19 that it had fined a local man 500 yuan for scaling the Great Firewall, a complex systems of blocks, filters and human censorship that limits what Chinese users can see online.

China outlawed the use of VPNs (virtual private networks) -- the most common form of circumvention tool -- in 2018, and typically charges those caught using them with "accessing the international internet through illegal channels."

But government-approved bodies and organizations are able to apply for exemption from the ban.

The fining of the man, whose surname is Yang but whose given name was withheld, led to a flurry of online criticism, including from Hu Xijin, editor-in-chief of the nationalistic tabloid Global Times newspaper.

More: https://www.rfa.org/english/news/china/vpn-punishments-05212020103537.html

[PeteS in CA]

Shaanxi province is more like central China, with Hubei Province to the east of it and Gansu Province to the west of it. The major city in the province is Xian.