The Ruling Crisis Deepens as the CCP Escalates Measures Against VPN Users.

The CCP has constructed the Great Firewall, obstructing citizens from accessing truthful information from overseas. (Dajiyuan composite image)

[People News] China's economy has been in prolonged stagnation, resulting in the withdrawal of foreign businesses, the collapse of many private enterprises, severe unemployment, and the bursting of the real estate bubble. Additionally, rampant corruption among officials, unequal wealth distribution, widening income gaps, and a serious debt crisis at the grassroots government level all pose significant threats to the governance and stability of the CCP regime. Instead of focusing on resolving these pressing issues amid both internal and external pressures, the CCP has intensified its stability maintenance efforts, tightening control over online discourse. Recently, in a crackdown on VPN users, police have even invaded private homes for searches and publicly announced fines, attempting to further suppress the dissemination of truth through terror tactics reminiscent of 'killing the chicken to scare the monkey.' These police actions have ignited public outrage.

The CCP Intensifies Punishments for VPN Users.

Historically, when the CCP police identified VPN users, they would typically instruct them to report to their local police station for reprimands and fines before allowing them to return home. However, there has been a recent increase in the severity of punishments for VPN users.

Documents released by the Hubei Public Security Law Enforcement Platform reveal that on March 11, a man named Xu from Ezhou was punished by the Liangzi Lake District Public Security Bureau for using a Huawei Honor phone to install the 'Clash' VPN software and accessing the overseas platforms TikTok and X (formerly Twitter), which are blocked by the CCP, while at his home.

The administrative penalty decision from the Liangzi Lake District Branch of the Ezhou Public Security Bureau classifies Xu Mou's actions as 'unauthorised international internet access.' The Chinese Communist police levied a fine of 200 yuan against this citizen, who was using a VPN at home, citing their harsh law, the 'Interim Regulations on the Administration of International Internet Access via Computer Information Networks,' and forcibly ordered him to stop accessing the internet.

In response, Hubei rights activist Zhang Yiming (pseudonym) told The Epoch Times, 'We usually check domestic news on Twitter (now called X) and Facebook, and we also read The Epoch Times. Previously, we listened to Radio Free Asia. If netizens use domestic smartphones to bypass the Great Firewall, they can be detected at any moment. I still advise against using domestic smartphones; they are too unsafe.'

Zhang Yiming noted that, according to legal texts, the issue of 'unauthorised international internet access' has always been present, but the frequency of law enforcement targeting ordinary netizens is on the rise, indicating that grassroots enforcement is becoming stricter. He observed a trend of younger individuals bypassing the Great Firewall: 'I noticed that a middle school student neighbor has a VPN on his phone. When I asked him what he was watching, he said he wanted to see how amazing the outside world is. In the past, middle school students were only interested in playing games and didn't pay attention to current events.'

According to The Epoch Times, on the same day, law enforcement actions in Xiaogan City were even more aggressive. The Xinhua Police Station in the Xiaonan District deployed over ten police officers to carry out a 'concentrated action' at a residential home on Changzheng South Road, resembling the response to a major criminal case.

Law enforcement documents reveal that these officers stormed into the residence and immediately arrested a netizen who was using a VPN to access foreign websites. The police charged him with 'illegally registering and using VPN software' and imposed a fine of 500 yuan.

The international community is questioning why the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) would send over a dozen police officers to forcibly enter the home of an unarmed ordinary internet user who merely seeks to access external information. Commentators argue that this action "clearly reveals the CCP's extreme fear of individuals attempting to bypass censorship." 

As the governance crisis deepens, the barriers are becoming increasingly fortified. 

Wei Fenglian (pseudonym), a scholar specialising in the CCP's internet censorship policies, remarked in an interview that the CCP has historically taken a "see no evil, hear no evil" approach or issued verbal warnings regarding individual attempts to bypass censorship. However, recent incidents in two areas of Hubei have raised alarming concerns: "This shows that grassroots measures have been significantly tightened, and 'illegal internet access' has shifted from being something that could be ignored to a situation where individuals are both arrested and fined. They are growing more fearful of the public, particularly young people, gaining knowledge of the outside world." 

Internet engineer Mr. Li expressed that the deployment of over a dozen police officers to arrest someone at home is "extremely unusual": "This is not merely about imposing fines; it resembles a form of political intimidation, using public announcements to create a climate of fear among ordinary citizens, discouraging them from engaging with any information that hasn't been sanitized by the CCP." 

In January of this year, the CCP's Ministry of Public Security released the heavily criticised draft of the 'Cybercrime Prevention Law (Draft for Comments)', which aims to completely sever the connections between internet users and the outside world on both technical and financial fronts. In reaction, some netizens expressed their outrage, stating: "Previously, they built walls to conceal the truth; now they are directly entering homes to arrest those who seek it." "As more prisons are constructed and walls are raised higher, this regime has become so fragile that it is terrified of even a few tweets."

Some analysts suggest that with the implementation of the Cybercrime Prevention Law, the Communist Party of China is working to localise the internet within the country, aiming to trap one billion people in a dark prison of information. The recent stringent crackdown in Hubei, described as a 'pilot program', could represent a microcosm of a nationwide campaign of large-scale persecution against internet users. △