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China Sentences Man to 5.5 Years for Selling VPN Service

Both Russia and China have ramped up their assault on VPN services as both governments try to control the free flow of information online. Case in point: the South China Post indicates that Chinese man Wu Xiangyang was sentenced to 5.5 years in prison for simply selling access to a VPN service. Xiangyang was also fined 500,000 yuan (US$76,000) in Pingnan county for not holding the proper licence for his VPN business, notes the report. The sentence is part of a multi-year crackdown on VPNs that began ahead of the once-every-five-year national congress of the Chinese Communist Party, and the renewal of the Politburo Standing Committee in early 2018.

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Toadman
Hypnotoad
join:2001-11-28
Mystery

1 edit

Toadman

Member

Chinese govt fooling themselves.

I have spent a lot of time in China for business and I was very suprised on how much the people I dealt with knew what was going on and what was happening in the world and their local government. most of them were able to get what they want without a vpn because the information was there. Actually their peer to peer networks were good enough you could download pretty much anything you wanted. The great firewall still
Has a lot of holes.

I did use a vpn but that was more for work ( I have to ). The only sight I ever saw blocked on a regular basis was the department store target ( had to pay cc ). From time
To time google was blocked but on a cell phone connection ( roaming ) it never was.

SpottedCat
join:2004-06-27
Miami, FL

8 recommendations

SpottedCat

Member

Re: Chinese govt fooling themselves.

China doesn't care if tourists and business travelers use VPNs. They only want to restrict their own people.

Hell, cellular providers typically provide an automatic VPN back to the home country when roaming. When I was abroad my AT&T phone roaming on Canadian carriers was coming from the same IP address pool it used domestically. Just makes things a lot easier all around.

That said, I'm appalled they're taking away 5.5 years of this man's life for something like this. It's sickening how paranoid the Chinese government is.
kucharsk
join:2001-03-30
Louisville, CO

1 recommendation

kucharsk

Member

Re: Chinese govt fooling themselves.

said by SpottedCat:

That said, I'm appalled they're taking away 5.5 years of this man's life for something like this. It's sickening how paranoid the Chinese government is.

True, though I doubt the sentence would be "just" 5.5 years were this man somewhere like North Korea.
Chubbysumo
join:2009-12-01
Duluth, MN
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Chubbysumo

Member

Re: Chinese govt fooling themselves.

The Chinese government is more setting the precident than anything else, and this guy is the test case for their kangaroo courts. Now that they got this guy, they can go after every single VPN provider they want, and anyone "running" them or selling access to them can now be given a prison sentence. This is how they will shut the door on VPNs in china, by making people scared to run them. Its a ruling by fear, which is a favored tactic of the current regime there.
Kearnstd
Space Elf
Premium Member
join:2002-01-22
Mullica Hill, NJ

3 recommendations

Kearnstd

Premium Member

Re: Chinese govt fooling themselves.

if the MPAA got their way every country would have VPN laws like this just so people could not skirt their obsolete regional limitations.
SArcanine
join:2009-11-09
New York

3 recommendations

SArcanine

Member

Re: Chinese govt fooling themselves.

said by Kearnstd:

if the MPAA got their way every country would have VPN laws like this just so people could not skirt their obsolete regional limitations.

If they got their way, anyone suspected of pirating a video would be executed.
radios1
join:2017-11-10

1 recommendation

radios1 to Chubbysumo

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to Chubbysumo
said by Chubbysumo:

The Chinese government is more setting the precident than anything else, and this guy is the test case for their kangaroo courts. Now that they got this guy, they can go after every single VPN provider they want, and anyone "running" them or selling access to them can now be given a prison sentence. This is how they will shut the door on VPNs in china, by making people scared to run them. Its a ruling by fear, which is a favored tactic of the current regime there.

the Chinese leadership, just like any other Communists, very much enjoys the power and money they get under Communism, which is why they are very fearful of having an informed populace, they might figure out what has been going on is very wrong, and rebel on a mass scale!!.. Communism don't benefit the Citizens, only the small group of leaders..
ernestsegui
join:2016-09-09
Lehigh Acres, FL

1 recommendation

ernestsegui

Member

Re: Chinese govt fooling themselves.

for the record, if its governed by a small group of leaders it is not communism it's a dictatorship /monarchy communism in reality is self governance by the people (its parts of the word communal is abbreviated )
SArcanine
join:2009-11-09
New York

1 recommendation

SArcanine

Member

Re: Chinese govt fooling themselves.

said by ernestsegui:

for the record, if its governed by a small group of leaders it is not communism it's a dictatorship /monarchy communism in reality is self governance by the people (its parts of the word communal is abbreviated )

That is what communism is in practice.
radios1
join:2017-11-10

2 recommendations

radios1 to ernestsegui

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to ernestsegui
said by ernestsegui:

for the record, if its governed by a small group of leaders it is not communism it's a dictatorship /monarchy communism in reality is self governance by the people (its parts of the word communal is abbreviated )

the meaning has gotten abused and distorted by Dictators that try to fool their people by calling themselves Communists for so long, that most people think that is what it is..

Toadman
Hypnotoad
join:2001-11-28
Mystery

Toadman to SpottedCat

Member

to SpottedCat
said by SpottedCat:

Hell, cellular providers typically provide an automatic VPN back to the home country when roaming. When I was abroad my AT&T phone roaming on Canadian carriers was coming from the same IP address pool it used domestically. Just makes things a lot easier all around.

That said, I'm appalled they're taking away 5.5 years of this man's life for something like this. It's sickening how paranoid the Chinese government is.

The hotel internet has no clue if
I am a traveIer or a domestic. I have also used multiple companies internet I was visiting and never had really any issues with vpn or not. The great firewall isn't much of one. Any news site I went to wasn't blocked.

I have never seen att automatically vpn back in. Maybe Canada felt a little different but then again I don't consider that an international destination. I have been in 40 different countries and whenever I have been roaming it is 100% on their network and my IP address says I am on their network and I have att as well. I even checked it one time in Vietnam and I was on vietel and it and I checked my ip
Address as well.

fuziwuzi
Not born yesterday
Premium Member
join:2005-07-01
Palm Springs, CA
Hitron EN2251
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fuziwuzi

Premium Member

Re: Chinese govt fooling themselves.

There is a lot of Western sites that are blocked in China. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, many news sites, many universities, Wikipedia. Using T-Mobile's free roaming, however, you ARE VPN'ed back to a US IP address so you can access any of those sites while in China.
SArcanine
join:2009-11-09
New York

-1 recommendation

SArcanine

Member

Re: Chinese govt fooling themselves.

said by fuziwuzi:

There is a lot of Western sites that are blocked in China. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, many news sites, many universities, Wikipedia. Using T-Mobile's free roaming, however, you ARE VPN'ed back to a US IP address so you can access any of those sites while in China.

Just a FYI, it is proxied back to the US. There is no VPN. The private part is not present.

Anon5223b
@rr.com

Anon5223b to SpottedCat

Anon

to SpottedCat
said by SpottedCat:

China doesn't care if tourists and business travelers use VPNs. They only want to restrict their own people.

Hell, cellular providers typically provide an automatic VPN back to the home country when roaming. When I was abroad my AT&T phone roaming on Canadian carriers was coming from the same IP address pool it used domestically. Just makes things a lot easier all around.

That said, I'm appalled they're taking away 5.5 years of this man's life for something like this. It's sickening how paranoid the Chinese government is.

Information, misinformation, and disinformation are all powerful, and with technology getting better and better, it makes it all the more important.
gsm
join:2009-03-10
144-0052

gsm to Toadman

Member

to Toadman
I have lived there and worked in Shanghai for in over 2 years in 2006. I was also surprised by what the locals knew it's not as tight controll and the news makes it out to be. It was better when Google was in China. The great firewall of China still has a lot of holes as long as you have someone on wechat that lived outside of China you can get all the news and info. I doubt China will be able to block wechat any time soon. I have streamed CNN on my tv using my laptop across wechat for them and it works. It's a bit awkward but works.
SArcanine
join:2009-11-09
New York

2 recommendations

SArcanine

Member

Re: Chinese govt fooling themselves.

said by gsm:

I have lived there and worked in Shanghai for in over 2 years in 2006. I was also surprised by what the locals knew it's not as tight controll and the news makes it out to be. It was better when Google was in China. The great firewall of China still has a lot of holes as long as you have someone on wechat that lived outside of China you can get all the news and info. I doubt China will be able to block wechat any time soon. I have streamed CNN on my tv using my laptop across wechat for them and it works. It's a bit awkward but works.

Are you aware that they are monitoring WeChat? The police will show up if you say anything that triggers their regular expressions.

I would joke about them being the thought police, but my contacts indicate it is the actual local police.

fuziwuzi
Not born yesterday
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Palm Springs, CA
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fuziwuzi to gsm

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to gsm
There has been a lot of change since 2006. Many VPNs simply don't work anymore as the GFW has figured out how to block the VPN completely. There are a few that still work, but they have to constantly shift their DNS and ports because the GFW will eventually block them. Some VPN operators have simply given up. And WeChat? LOL. WeChat is very closely monitored. Your "private" WeChat conversations are certainly not private to the GFW. They monitor keywords and they WILL follow up with in-person "interviews" if they deem it necessary. And some subjects simply won't post on WeChat. You make a comment mentioning certain things, it will show on your timeline but nobody else's. You're effectively silenced.
SArcanine
join:2009-11-09
New York

1 recommendation

SArcanine

Member

Re: Chinese govt fooling themselves.

said by fuziwuzi:

There has been a lot of change since 2006. Many VPNs simply don't work anymore as the GFW has figured out how to block the VPN completely. There are a few that still work, but they have to constantly shift their DNS and ports because the GFW will eventually block them. Some VPN operators have simply given up. And WeChat? LOL. WeChat is very closely monitored. Your "private" WeChat conversations are certainly not private to the GFW. They monitor keywords and they WILL follow up with in-person "interviews" if they deem it necessary. And some subjects simply won't post on WeChat. You make a comment mentioning certain things, it will show on your timeline but nobody else's. You're effectively silenced.

Private VPNs work as long as you avoid the fairly simplistic heuristics. L2TP/IPSec reportedly has no restrictions.

fuziwuzi
Not born yesterday
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join:2005-07-01
Palm Springs, CA
Hitron EN2251
Nest H2D

fuziwuzi

Premium Member

Re: Chinese govt fooling themselves.

Your VPN won't work if you can't connect to the blocked VPN servers. That's the point. The GFW is actively blocking access to the servers outside. When they discover one, it is blocked. VPN providers have to constantly shift their addresses and get the info out to users. Many have simply given up because it is a resource-intensive effort.
SArcanine
join:2009-11-09
New York

SArcanine

Member

Re: Chinese govt fooling themselves.

said by fuziwuzi:

Your VPN won't work if you can't connect to the blocked VPN servers. That's the point. The GFW is actively blocking access to the servers outside. When they discover one, it is blocked. VPN providers have to constantly shift their addresses and get the info out to users. Many have simply given up because it is a resource-intensive effort.

A private VPN implies that you are your own VPN provider. Furthermore, the great firewall is not that smart. I have already stated that L2TP/IPSec gets through it. I am not going to list all of the techniques that I know to bypass it lest the great firewall operators read this post and train their firewall to block them on a whim.

I can assure you that businesses are using VPNs through the great firewall without a problem. The great firewall is not intended to prevent VPNs used by businesses to stop working. Had it been, L2TP/IPSec would be blocked in general and China’s economy would suffer.

The people running the great firewall sign up for public VPN service accounts to learn the end point IPs. Then blocking them is simple. Being a private VPN provider is means that it is only for you / your organization and therefore there is no way for the public to sign up for accounts, which avoids the problem of being manually blacklisted for running a VPN service for the public.

fuziwuzi
Not born yesterday
Premium Member
join:2005-07-01
Palm Springs, CA
Hitron EN2251
Nest H2D

fuziwuzi

Premium Member

Re: Chinese govt fooling themselves.

I'm not sure what point you're trying to make. You keep replying to my comments with things I've not even mentioned. My comment is in reference to VPN providers like Witopia and others who provide a service to the public for a fee. Many of them can no longer provide service to people in China because the endpoints are blocked and the constant need to update endpoint addresses is simply too resource intensive to continue. Yes, registered businesses can and do use their own VPN services. I never stated otherwise. My comments were strictly about citizens and visitors using VPNs to access websites and services outside of China, like Facebook, Twitter, and others. And WeChat and other systems are most definitely being closely monitored, most likely by AI that is tuned by keywords which are constantly being updated.
SArcanine
join:2009-11-09
New York

-1 recommendation

SArcanine

Member

Re: Chinese govt fooling themselves.

said by fuziwuzi:

I'm not sure what point you're trying to make. You keep replying to my comments with things I've not even mentioned. My comment is in reference to VPN providers like Witopia and others who provide a service to the public for a fee. Many of them can no longer provide service to people in China because the endpoints are blocked and the constant need to update endpoint addresses is simply too resource intensive to continue. Yes, registered businesses can and do use their own VPN services. I never stated otherwise. My comments were strictly about citizens and visitors using VPNs to access websites and services outside of China, like Facebook, Twitter, and others. And WeChat and other systems are most definitely being closely monitored, most likely by AI that is tuned by keywords which are constantly being updated.

There is nothing stopping someone who understands how to do networking from using a VPN connection. They just need to get a machine somewhere to be the server. Datacenters like digital ocean lease virtual machines for very little. It would be trivial to use one of those.

By the way, I have been a visitor to China. Nothing kept me from using a VPN. It was trivial. You seem to think otherwise. :/

fuziwuzi
Not born yesterday
Premium Member
join:2005-07-01
Palm Springs, CA
Hitron EN2251
Nest H2D

fuziwuzi

Premium Member

Re: Chinese govt fooling themselves.

I think otherwise because I've lived in China and know firsthand the frustrations of having your VPN service not work and having to rely on their techs to reroute connections to overcome the latest GFW blocks. You are completely and utterly void of any semblance of reality if you think everyone understands how to set up a VPN from scratch and has the resources to do so.
SArcanine
join:2009-11-09
New York

-1 recommendation

SArcanine

Member

Re: Chinese govt fooling themselves.

said by fuziwuzi:

I think otherwise because I've lived in China and know firsthand the frustrations of having your VPN service not work and having to rely on their techs to reroute connections to overcome the latest GFW blocks. You are completely and utterly void of any semblance of reality if you think everyone understands how to set up a VPN from scratch and has the resources to do so.

I have been in China for a month at a time and bypassing the firewall was child’s play. I think that you just are not very knowledge in this area.

I also never claimed that everyone knows how to setup a VPN. That kind of is the point of the GFW restrictions.
ernestsegui
join:2016-09-09
Lehigh Acres, FL

ernestsegui

Member

Re: Chinese govt fooling themselves.

sarcanine the bigger issue is not if they can be bypassed but the fact that there is a need in the first place anything can be circumvented
SArcanine
join:2009-11-09
New York

-1 recommendation

SArcanine

Member

Re: Chinese govt fooling themselves.

said by ernestsegui:

sarcanine the bigger issue is not if they can be bypassed but the fact that there is a need in the first place anything can be circumvented

Imperfect connectivity is a fact of life on the internet. It is rare that people notice it. If you want better connectivity, get a VM at a local datacenter, setup a VPN server and route all of your traffic through it. Last mile ISP connectivity is traditionally lousy.

Try talking to them about it and you will get stone walled. If it is not costing them money, they have no reason to fix it. Heck, I doubt that they would even view 90ms as a problem.
ernestsegui
join:2016-09-09
Lehigh Acres, FL

1 recommendation

ernestsegui

Member

Re: Chinese govt fooling themselves.

it is not a matter of connectivity you can have a 1gbps connection if it is censored you aren't free but rather a prisoner of an oppressive regime
ernestsegui

ernestsegui

Member

Re: Chinese govt fooling themselves.

don't worry we will soon experience this in America with the repeal of net neutrality laws
SArcanine
join:2009-11-09
New York

SArcanine to ernestsegui

Member

to ernestsegui
said by ernestsegui:

it is not a matter of connectivity you can have a 1gbps connection if it is censored you aren't free but rather a prisoner of an oppressive regime

A 200Mbps connection will rarely do 10Mbps inside the country, so it does not matter how fast it is.
kucharsk
join:2001-03-30
Louisville, CO

2 recommendations

kucharsk to SArcanine

Member

to SArcanine
It also is a question of the penalties for doing so.

A country like China could easily decide that in addition to their efforts to block VPNs, mere possession of VPN technology by a Chinese citizen were a capital crime punishable by death, suddenly checking Facebook might become far less appealing.
SArcanine
join:2009-11-09
New York

-1 recommendation

SArcanine

Member

Re: Chinese govt fooling themselves.

That is baseless speculation given that VPN technology is not banned. Theybhave no problems with it being used when the server is within their borders.

fuziwuzi
Not born yesterday
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join:2005-07-01
Palm Springs, CA
Hitron EN2251
Nest H2D

fuziwuzi to SArcanine

Premium Member

to SArcanine
I know more than you think. Obviously, you're some savant who can't comprehend anyone not knowing as much as you do about everything in the world. Oh, to be as smart as you! I'm beginning to think you're nothing but a typical internet blowhard. 'bye Felicia.

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