[philliphaydon]

> As does any messenger through a VPN

Except VPNs are illegal in china. If a site is banned in china. Using a VPN to circumvent the law is breaking the law.

Email is not secure.

[idra]

There is no such thing as "the law" in China. You may be imprisoned or disappeared if you didn't do anything to circumvent "the law", there are always undisclosed "relevant rules and regulations" ready to be unleashed. You can also carry out brazen illegal activities as long as you are well-connected (until you start stepping on toes of someone more well-connected than you).

So what if email is insecure, neither is Wechat. And encrypted email is still a thing.

[lazyasciiart]

It's easy to point to examples of all those things in the US. Both countries still have laws.

[101404]

You are wrong.

There is a big difference between countries with independent judicial systems, and China where judges are below the local party secretary.

Chinese laws are decoration. What actually counts is what the party decides.

[lazyasciiart]

Did you know that 95% of people convicted of a crime in the US were not convicted by that independent judicial system? https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/prisons-are-packed-bec...

Just because there isn't "the party" making decisions in the US doesn't mean that there isn't a lot of flexibility in when and how the law is applied. It just gets left up to the local sheriff or prosecutors.

[Eizieizz]

Typical Wumao whataboutism! Even the best legal system is flawed because it is handled by humans.

But that doesn't mean that the legal system in the facist dicatorship of China is comparable in any way to a proper democratic judiciary.

Chinas system is an unconstitutional state by definition.

[Markoff]

some VPNs are in theory legal, but you are right for 99.9% of Chinese population they are inaccessible and illegal

people downvoting you are morons downvoting for technicality, while you are right

[lvturner]

This isn't strictly true - https://www.scmp.com/economy/china-economy/article/3023081/c...

It's also worth noting that a cellular connection that is roaming is not generally subject to the restrictions the firewall imposes.

[philliphaydon]

It is strictly true. The law states: "illegal to access foreign internet without government permission first."

The government opening up businesses to connect to services such as facebook or twitter to promote china businesses and so on is just the government giving permissions.

But for the every-day citizen, the use of a VPN is technically illegal as it circumvents the law.