Some context which may be relevant: many local governments in China are in heavy debt, and they need more income: police have been collecting more and more fines, causing some outrages [1]. There are reports that many civil servants are unpaid for months (in Tianjin [2] and other cities [3][4]), in addition to getting heavy wage cuts [3][5].<p>A penalty of over 1 million yuan (>145K USD) for <i>using</i> VPN is a new development: before this, only VPN service <i>sellers</i> were prosecuted.<p>[1]: Law-enforcement agencies have been imposing larger and more frequent fines for offenses: <a href="https://www.wsj.com/world/china/chinas-local-governments-are-so-cash-strapped-they-use-police-to-raise-revenue-30c4fcaf" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://www.wsj.com/world/china/chinas-local-governments-are...</a> "China’s Police Are the New Earners for Cash-Strapped Governments"<p>[2]: <a href="https://eightify.app/summary/chess/tianjin-government-crisis-unpaid-salaries-and-impending-bankruptcy" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://eightify.app/summary/chess/tianjin-government-crisis...</a> "The Tianjin government's financial crisis, with unpaid wages and high debt ratios, reflects a larger problem in China's declining land finance and unsaleable real estate market, raising concerns about the stability of other Chinese cities."<p>[3]: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=242pUa9rXgg">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=242pUa9rXgg</a> "Civil Servants go unpaid and Local Government Borrowed From Temples/Protests surge in China"<p>[4]: <a href="https://www.rfa.org/english/news/china/wages-09082023112323.html" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://www.rfa.org/english/news/china/wages-09082023112323....</a> "Chinese local governments struggle to pay civil servants' wages"<p>[5]: The government is trimming a combination of bonuses, cash subsidies and base pay for many employees, according to interviews with 10 local civil servants: <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2023-09-12/pay-cuts-in-finance-tech-threaten-xi-s-campaign-to-revive-china-economy" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2023-09-12/pay-cuts-...</a> "Bankers’ 40% Pay Cuts Show the China Dream Fading in Its Richest Cities"