Chinese man gets 5.5 years in prison for offering VPN service

A Chinese man has been sentenced by authorities to 5.5 years in prison for managing and providing a virtual private network. The man was also fined more than 64,000 euros.

The reason for the jail sentence is that, according to the Chinese authorities, the man did not have the proper license for his commercial activities of selling VPN services, the South China Morning Post reported based on a message from the Chinese Supreme Court. People’s Procuratorate.

According to China, he has been managing a VPN service since June 2013 with which he has generated more than 64,000 euros in profit so far; that is exactly the amount of the fine imposed. The man’s website has since been taken offline.

It is not clear why the prison sentence was so high. In September, it emerged that another Chinese man was sentenced to a significantly reduced prison sentence of nine months at the beginning of this year for selling VPN software.

China has been working for some time to get more grip on the internet, with VPNs being a specific target. For example, in January the Chinese government launched a campaign to ban VPN services that the authorities have not authorized. All vpn services in China require government approval to operate in the country.

Companies in the country have been warned to only allow the use of VPN connections for internal use. It was reported in July that the government wants ISPs to block the use of VPN connections by private individuals from February 1, 2018.