On Feb. 20, a post by the account “Luo Xiang, Breaking Through the Wall” on the social platform X sent shockwaves through the overseas Chinese internet. The post included a secretly photographed copy of an administrative penalty document issued by a branch of the Dalian Municipal Public Security Bureau.
The whistleblower, who identified himself as an insider within the public security system, wrote: “I am a member of the public security apparatus. Recently the budget shortfall has been enormous. The police system has already begun mass arrests and fines targeting YouTube creators. To my knowledge, penalty orders have already been issued against nearly 40 creators.
The new regulations on overseas income taxation and cybersecurity laws are all designed to solve the budget problem. Our municipal bureau has been given a quota of 6 billion yuan in three months. Those who meet the quota get bonuses. Those who don’t get transferred. I risked my life to secretly photograph one case. We’ve been tracking this one for half a year. Anyone who refuses to pay gets charged under catch-all crimes: illegal VPN use, or espionage.”
The fine against a single creator totaled 415 million yuan
According to the penalty document, the targeted creator had operated a YouTube channel from Nov. 18, 2014, to Jan. 31, 2026, earning a total of $5.77 million through content creation, merchandise sales, membership fees, and embedded advertising. The document converted this to 41.57 million yuan, then imposed a fine of 415.69 million yuan, roughly ten times the creator’s total earnings over twelve years.
The legal basis cited in the document included the “Provisional Regulations on the Management of International Computer Information Network Connections” and the “Cybercrime Prevention and Control Law.” The charges accused the creator of using unapproved VPN tools to access overseas websites and evading taxes on the income earned abroad.
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The document ordered the creator to pay the full fine by March 31, 2026, with a penalty of 3 percent per day on any unpaid balance after the deadline.
The response across Chinese-language social media was swift and blunt. Commenters called it open theft.
“It’s not about a budget shortfall,” one commenter wrote. “The economy is in bad shape, so the revenue from fines and confiscations has dried up. Traffic police, criminal investigators, public order units, every department has annual confiscation quotas. This is just them finding new ways to squeeze money.”
“Terrifying. Any creator with a channel better get their finances in order before they get bled dry,” another warned.
Others predicted that the impact would soon become visible: “If this is real, we’re about to see a wave of YouTube creators reacting to this in real time.”
Some commenters noted apparent errors in the document, including the formatting of the police bureau’s name, which did not match standard conventions. Vision Times was unable to independently verify the document’s authenticity.
Still, the overwhelming reaction online was to treat the document as credible, on the grounds that shaking down ordinary citizens is exactly what the CCP does when it runs short of cash.
The CCP has been funding itself through confiscation and extortion since its founding
The Party’s history of financing itself through robbery is as old as the Party itself.
Teng Daiyuan, who served as the CCP’s first minister of railways, recalled in his memoirs that during the so-called Pingjiang Uprising in July 1928, Communist troops looted towns along their march to the Jinggangshan base area. After capturing Wanzai County and occupying the major market town of Xuanfeng, Teng wrote, “every soldier had cloth wrapped around his head, wore all manner of clothing, some in top hats, some in riding jackets, fur coats, or Western suits. Each man received at least one hundred silver dollars in spending money.” The clothing and silver, of course, came from the local population the troops had just robbed.
In 1929, Chen Yi, later one of the CCP’s most prominent marshals, described in an official report how the forces of Zhu De and Mao Zedong raised money through so-called “struggle sessions against local tyrants.” Wealthy residents who fled had notices posted on their homes estimating the value of their property and demanding payment by a set date. “Each time the deadline passed without payment, one building was burned as a warning,” Chen wrote.
He boasted that this method was highly effective and that “the Red Army’s finances were largely solved this way.” Xiong Shouqi, a member of the Red Fourth Army’s military committee, confirmed that the Red Army “plastered notices everywhere” at each stop, demanding that wealthy residents hand over money “or face arson and execution.” By 1931, the political department of the Red Twelfth Army had formalized the practice: “If the landlord has fled, post threatening notices. Collect as much in fines as possible.”
In 1931, the CCP built itself through robbery and extortion. In 2026, it is doing the same thing to survive.
The late Hong Kong novelist Ni Kuang, one of the most widely read Chinese-language writers of the twentieth century and a lifelong critic of the Communist Party, once summarized the regime’s evolution in a single line: “The cannibal tribe has switched to wearing suits and using knives and forks.” The CCP still devours its own people. It just looks more presentable while doing it.
By Jian Yi
