

You are being absolutely ridiculous. VPNs may be de jure forbidden in China (idk about this even), but de-facto they’re absolutely allowed, nobody is prosecuted for using them, and every young Chinese person can tell you this. You haven’t talked with a Chinese living in China in your entire life.

From the article:
This person was not “using a VPN”, he was lying to the government about his working status and working for an overseas firm illegally.