What's the current legal risk of using a VPN in China or Russia these days? I found a couple articles about people getting charged, but none I know to be reputable or particularly well written.
China at least, isn’t a strong rule of law country, rather it is more of a rule by law one. So if they want to get you, they’ll find some law to get you on, and if they don’t, they won’t go after you for using a VPN or other minor offenses. So I wouldn’t really worry about it.
There is no black and white rule of law/rule by law countries. Only ones that tilt more to one or the other. So like China might be a 35 and the states might be a 65.
Yes, they are. There is a world of difference. In the West you normal people have so much power they do not even realise. You see that when you live outside it.
In the West there is a long History of institutions(like cities) that went against the abuses of the people in charge. You were a servant, you entered a city(burg) you became free, the city protected you. This happened for centuries. In China something like that happened at specific periods, but eventually the Emperor took all the power.
In China the Emperor or the Tzar in Russia could do anything. In Russia those that wanted freedom lost every single time. If a servant entered a city and the city did not deliver the fugitive, the Tzar will burn the city. The same happened with the Soviets. You want your own food? We will kill you all and send your children and wife to Siberia. Everybody else(not the Emperor) were servant. Now Xi or Putin are the new emperors, like Lenin, Stalin or Mao were.
I have lived in China as a privileged engineer/expatriate.
Basically most people have no idea what a country without rule of law(like China) is.
>If necessary anyone can be canceled.
Or you can cancel them. You consider yourself a victim, a nobody, but people can get public and get a million views and could do real damage to those in power.
you were also a privilege person in the West and oblivious to poorer people outside of larger cities as the people you saw in China being oblivious to poorer people living outside of larger cities. foreigners, no matter how privileged, hardly can live inside the safety bubbles you yourself lived in the west.
I guess it depends on what sites you want to visit using VPN. People here in Russia openly use VPN to visit Instagram etc., and no one seems to have an issue with that. But if you want to read some opposition sites, however... Now that's some gray area.
Don't forget that the "real" risk and the "legal" risk in states like Russia/China can be very different.
The laws are written in specifically vague verbiage as to be interpreted in favor of state actors by judges whenever they need to be. You may be clear in the letter of the law in your mind, until a charge is brought up against you using another law, etc.
