“When people taste freedom, they will never go back to seeing the CCP’s toxic media,” said Gun Wenwei, who helped Chinese people bypass the Internet firewall.
The young people who helped around five million Chinese people bypass China’s great firewalls are being sought by the Chinese regime and are applying for political asylum in the Netherlands.
Gan Wenwei, 31, from Wuhan City, was arrested by Chinese police last August for selling Chinese private network (VPN) software.
As an internet addict, Cancer, after dropping out of primary school, worked at an internet cafe to allow him to surf the web for free.
“I personally always had to access Google, Twitter and even overseas websites and media,” he told NTD, a sister media outlet in the Epoch era, in an interview held in Chinese on March 4th.
“Then I realized there are other people like me who need to access foreign media, such as overseas websites such as YouTube, so I ended up entering the industry myself,” Gunn said.
China’s great firewall, also known as the Golden Shield Project, was founded in 1998 and managed by the communist government’s Ministry of Public Security, censored what could not be seen in the country. Firewalls prohibit major websites and social media platforms such as Google, Facebook, YouTube, Yahoo, and more.
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Bypassing Internet censorship with VPN software is commonly referred to as “bypassing walls.”
According to 2019 estimates by Li Zhi’an, a Chinese Internet Law expert at the University of Hong Kong, China, in 2019, China had between 20 and 30 million internet users using VPNs.
Early in his career, Gunn joined a telegram group that included around 100 people who helped each other, navigating the amazing firewall and technical challenges that arose.
“In the last decade, there have been intermittent periods where we lost contact and even disappeared. But overall, we maintain stable communication with around 30 people,” he said. “These 30 people form a kind of mutual support group, like the industry association. Whenever there are technical challenges, we solve them together and if there are procurement issues, we work as a team.”
Gan estimated that the team has received nearly 5 million orders in China for VPN software packages over the past year.
“For security reasons, I basically delete data once a month and only hold about 400,000 orders (about 400,000 orders),” he said.
Gan specifically pointed out that most mainstream international VPN providers in China are inherently unavailable due to the Chinese administration’s firewall. China’s VPN software provider circle has its own proxy tools and methods. However, these methods are subject to crackdowns and authorities frequently update blocking techniques.
“Chinese VPN software is not actually traditionally understood as a VPN, as people from China. There are no overseas orders. All orders come from Chinese users.”
He was arrested and forced by the police
The self-employed business owner was arrested by the Deep Shenzhen police at his home in Wuhan on August 15, 2024.
“At the time of arrest there was no evidence at all,” Gunn said. “They tricked me into opening my front door, then suddenly five or six people controlled me, handcuffed me, searched my house, and turned everything upside down. They didn’t show their ID and didn’t present what they call arrest documents.”
When police questioned cancer on August 15th, they told him he could first pay some money to make up for his mistake.
“I told you I could borrow some money from a friend. The next day I told my friend I needed money urgently and needed 1.5 million yuan ($206,865) of cash. My friend then brought the cash to my house,” he recalled.
After being held for 28 days, cancer was released on bail by the Deep Shenzhen Public Safety Bureau and returned to Wuhan.
He didn’t expect police in Xiajin, a poor county in Eastern Eastern Province, would arrest him again in a month.
“In the Centre for the Handling of the Deep Shenshan District Incident, they (Xiajin Police) clashed with Deep Shenzhen Police and took us all to Shandong,” Gunn said. “They repeatedly suggested that paying a fine of around 1 million yuan ($137,910) would help them avoid the fee.”
“They said, “This issue may be big or small. You need to think carefully.”
When he returned, he confessed and promised he was willing to do his best to raise funds, and Gan was released on bail and allowed to return to Wuhan. In this case, more than 30 people were involved in the total, and four were arrested.
Gang Wenwei spoke in a conversation in a Chinese-language interview with New Tan Dynasty (NTD), the sister media of the Epoch Times. NTD TV screenshot
Lin said Xiajin County officials will arrest individuals working in the VPN industry nationwide to compensate for their finances.
“They accept this as a way to generate revenue and solve local financial problems, but individuals can also use this project to accumulate personal wealth,” he told the Epoch Times on March 5th.
Ju Kaifei, the deputy director of the Cybersecurity unit, who was featured on the list of villains, was also highly praised in an article on Xiajin Public Security’s WeChat account.
“Since the Ministry of Public Safety began its operational ‘Firewall Bypass and Network Disruption’, Ju Kaifei has led the investigation and handling of a series of cases, including ‘11.20, which provides tools for the intrusion and illegal control of computer information systems cases.”
“These efforts will successfully close several illegal websites that have been operating for over three years, invite more than 500,000 charging users nationwide and seize more than 40 million yuan ($5516,404.00) of illegal funds,” the article states.
“As a cybersecurity officer, JU has always stuck to the principles of party management for Internet security and is dedicated to tackling the forefront of fighting illegal activities and crime.”
Screenshots of articles about Xiajin Public Security’s WeChat account praises cop Ju Kaifei. Provided by Lin Shengliang
The way to escape
On December 13, 2024, Gunn received a subpoena requesting that he go to the Xiajin Public Safety Bureau on December 16 for questions.
Knowing that the police are ready to close the net and that if he can’t come up with money, he might be sentenced to prison, Cancer decides to escape.
“I was restricted from leaving the country because I was on bail. Luckily, my passport was not confiscated!” Read the post on his website.
“I chartered my car from Wuhan to Guangzhou (I didn’t get out of my car anywhere in China to avoid surveillance), and then went to a Southeast Asian country. With the help of internal customs staff, I falsified my admission and exit records and successfully activated my passport!
“Next, my wife and children went abroad, flew to Singapore where we met, then traveled to Serbia. From there we took our cargo trucks to the European Union and ultimately to the Netherlands.”
The family passed through North Africa, Serbia and Italy along the way, and arrived in Amsterdam on January 26th. They currently live in a refugee camp in Tilburg, awaiting approval for asylum.
Firewall bypass is “mental drugs.”
When asked about five million orders a year and why Chinese demand for VPNs is so high, Gan said bypassing the great firewall is like a psycho-medicine of freedom.
“When people’s horizons are expanded, it can’t stop them no matter what they’re doing because of their YouTube, they’re engaged in academic research, or work-related needs,” he said. “When a person tastes freedom, they will never return to seeing the toxic media of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) as the news on CCTV.”
He recalled how he saw customers change after using their products to break through the Internet firewall.
A customer who first commented that he didn’t understand why so many channels on YouTube were constantly criticizing the Chinese administration, started using VPNs about seven years ago.
Over the past two years, clients have commented that he has been gradually opening up his perspective, that he understands some of China’s brainwashing policies and how the administration controls people’s thoughts.
“Previously, this customer was ‘Little Pink’ (Pro CCP), but later he had a big change in his attitude and had a big change,” Gunn said. “So, if a person has an environment with free speech, it greatly strengthens their personal growth, including progress in their thinking.”
For this reason, cancer believes that business will continue to grow.
“Using a VPN is like a psychotic drug. Once you start, you can’t stop, and once you can’t finish, you’ll continue to buy and use different methods to bypass your firewall,” he said.
Gunn Wenway traveled by smuggling vehicle. Courtesy of Gan Wenwei
We cherish the freedom to bypass firewalls
The cancer business in China was suspended after his arrest and escape. Currently, in the Netherlands, GANs need to grant refugee status before they can establish a company that will resume their VPN business.
“We would like to apologise to customers who use our software and were affected by the service disruption after we were caught,” he said. “This was a forced choice, not something we intended.”
Gunn also urged Chinese netizens to cherish the freedom they still need to bypass the great firewall.
“Based on my observations, great firewalls are becoming stricter and more strict,” Gunn said.
He predicts that CCP may establish a whitelist system in the future.
“People can bypass the great firewall just because China currently uses a blacklist system,” he explained. “The blacklist system refers to the current approach of banning certain entities such as NTD, Google, Twitter, and more.
“However, if you switch to the whitelist system, it means you only allow access to certain sites and you cannot take photos of alternative routes. This makes detouring the firewall much more difficult. It’s not impossible, it’s very challenging.
“Therefore, I hope people cherish the hard-earned freedom they have,” he said.
NTD reporter Chang Chun contributed to this report.
